A West Virginia chemical plant explosion Wednesday injured four people, prompting officials to issue a shelter-in-place order.
The Kanawha County Commission said the order had been lifted by late morning.
Shelter-in-Place Lifted pic.twitter.com/7Mg8KaxORS
— KCC EmerManagement (@KCCDHSEM) December 9, 2020
The plant explosion took place after 10 p.m. Tuesday at the Chemours facility in Belle, West Virginia, the Kanawha County Commission said in a statement.
Among the injured were two workers at the plant and one person who was hit by falling debris, CBS News reported.
Officials believe the explosion was caused by a mixture of methanol and chlorinated dry bleach, Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper said.
“We’ve had at least one very serious explosion and a working fire at the plant,” Carper added.
People who lived in the area said their houses shook. Emergency officials announced a shelter-in-place order for a two-mile distance around the plant and closed a nearby road so firefighters could extinguish the flames.
Chemours was developed as a spinoff company from DuPont in 2015. The plant is located along the Kanawha River, ten miles away from Charleston, West Virginia. The town of Belle, West Virginia, has a population of about 1,100 residents.
