Toledo chemical tank leak forces evacuations as more than 50,000 are told to stay inside

A damaged tank of industrial chemicals sent a thick white cloud over north Toledo for most of Wednesday. Close to 1,000 people were ordered out of their homes overnight and more than 50,000 others in Ohio's fourth largest city were told to stay indoors with their windows shut.

The trouble began at about 10 p.m. Tuesday at an MC Tank Transport yard on Progress Avenue in an industrial part of the city. The tank holds roughly 5,500 gallons of glycidyl methacrylate, a liquid that turns into a gas once it escapes and that companies use to help plastics, paints and coatings hold up better. State environmental officials blamed a mistake made while the material was being moved from one container to another.

Firefighters tried and failed to seal the leak. City leaders then decided the safest move was to let the chemical finish reacting and vent into the air instead of sending crews close to a yard where other tanks were stored. Officials had worried from the start that the tank could blow up.

Orders shrink as the plume fades

Toledo Fire and Rescue first cleared everyone within a mile of the site late Tuesday. Before dawn on Wednesday the city added a stay-inside order covering a 3-mile circle that reached neighborhoods along Lake Erie and crossed the state line into southeast Michigan.

By Wednesday evening conditions had improved enough for the city to lift the stay-inside order and shrink the evacuation area to half a mile. About 300 residents were still kept out of their homes. Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said drone flights showed the tank cooling down and the cloud getting smaller and that the tank was close to finished venting.

"This is something we should be concerned about. This is not something we should panic about," the mayor told residents. He said testing by the agencies at the scene had not turned up anything harmful to human health so far.

Burning eyes and sore throats

The chemical can burn the eyes, nose, mouth and skin. Local hospitals said about 30 people came in with symptoms that may be tied to the leak and most were sent home the same day. A sheriff's deputy who answered the first call later drove himself to a hospital after he began feeling sick.

Karim Baroudi, who leads the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, said the chemical is very dangerous to touch or swallow and that officials were still working out how much of it was in the air. Residents miles away said they could smell something like paint or burning plastic. Health officials told anyone with irritation to rinse off in a shower and to call a doctor or 911 for trouble breathing.

Federal environmental teams set up air monitors around the edge of the evacuation zone and plan to bring in a mobile air lab later in the week.

A city on pause

Toledo Public Schools and other districts called off classes. Two school systems in Michigan closed as well. Stellantis halted work at its Jeep assembly plant in Toledo and several nearby parts suppliers canceled their afternoon shifts. Red Cross volunteers and city buses waited at a shelter site for families who had nowhere else to go.

The Arkansas company that owns the tank said the safety of neighbors, first responders and its workers is its top concern and that it is working with fire officials. Investigators have not said when evacuated residents can go home.