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Shelter Warning In Place Around Louisville Appliance Park Fire

WFPL

Update 3:45 p.m.: Air Situation

Regulators detected hydrochloric acid gas in the smoke at the site. But they haven’t found any signs of the toxic gas downwind. The city’s air pollution monitors have registered slightly higher levels of particulate matter today than is typical, but there haven’t been any large spikes in air pollution since the fire began.

Update 2:10 p.m.: Shelter Warning Back to Half-Mile

The shelter in place warning was changed back to a half-mile of Appliance Park because of changing weather conditions, MetroSafe said.

Update 12:42 p.m.: Shelter Warning Extended

The shelter in place warning issued Friday because of the massive fire at Appliance Park has been extended to a two-mile radius from the fire, according to MetroSafe.

Update 11:19 a.m.: Mayor Urges People to Avoid Appliance Park Area

Firefighters will likely be at the scene of a raging fire at Appliance Park through the day today and into the night, said a spokesman for Louisville Fire & Rescue.

The six-alarm fire, which was reported at 7 a.m., is contained to Building 6 at the General Electric plant, but it is not yet under control, said Salvador Melendez of Louisville Fire. Building 6 is used as a storage facility.

No injuries have been reported.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, Melendez said.

About 200 firefighters from multiple fire departments are responding.

The shelter-in-place ordered for a half-mile radius around the plant remains in effect.

Officials are testing the air in the area.

Mayor Greg Fischer urged people to avoid the Appliance Park area so emergency personnel have a clear path to the fire.

“Everybody, please stay away,” he said.

The blaze is happening as Louisville deals with flooding from overnight rains, and the potential for more rain through the day.

We’ll have more updates later today.

Earlier: Amid flooding in Louisville, a massive fire ignited Friday morning at the city’s General Electric plant.

A shelter-in-place has been ordered for the half-mile area around the plant.

Firefighters from throughout the county are fighting the six-alarm fire. No injuries have been reported.

Here’s the scene from Bardstown Road:

Clouds of thick black smoke could be seen across the entire county this morning, as one of the six main buildings at General Electric’s Appliance Park burned.

“Right now, we’re in the defensive mode, which means we’ll surround the structure, we’ll put up elevated platforms and shoot water down from that way. We’ll have handheld master streams, so what we’re doing basically is surrounding and drowning, trying to suppress the fire,” said Kevin Tyler, Harrods Creek Fire chief and a spokesman for the county’s suburban fire districts.
Copyright 2015 WFPL-FM. To see more, visit http://wfpl.org/.

Erica Peterson is a reporter and Kentucky Public Radio correspondent based out of WFPL in Louisville, Kentucky.
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