A fire broke out this Friday night at a chemical plant in downtown Passaic, New Jersey, the city's Fire Department confirmed.
The incident, which was raised
to the category of 10 alarms
around 11:00 pm, occurred near Canal Street, said Mayor Hector Lora, who broadcast – in English and Spanish – from the place through Facebook Live and limited that there are several buildings affected, although the fire started in two.
Due to the fire, in addition, Route 21 was closed.
The cloud of smoke could be seen nearly
10 miles away.
He also said residents
were being evacuated from the area immediately
as huge plumes of smoke billowed into the air.
"We have firefighters that are coming from Patterson, from Passaic, obviously, we have the Passaic County Office of Emergency Management," he said in reference to the magnitude of the fire.
The chief of the fire department confirmed that there are 11 companies involved in the fire and that there are "approximately 500 x 800 sides of the building burning at this time".
So far only one firefighter has been transferred to the hospital.
No other known injuries.
The cloud heads from north to south
Bill Karins, meteorologist for our sister network NBC News, reported that "a potential plume of toxic smoke is being blown south by the north wind. It's easily seen on radar as it heads east of Newark and over Staten Island."
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy also asked people, through his Twitter social network account, to stay out of the scene and to "pray for the safety of our frontline officers who are on scene." .
