Industrial fire at Tennessee Superfund site extinguished

Friday, December 20, 2013

photo Smoke rises from a fire at a burning plastics recycling plant on a contaminated federal Superfund site on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013, near Lyles, Tenn.

NASHVILLE - A large industrial fire at a federal Superfund site in central Tennessee has been put out and an evacuation order that affected about 300 people has been lifted.

Kim Skelton in the Hickman County mayor's office says the blaze that started Wednesday morning was put out late Thursday. On Friday morning emergency officials determined it was safe for residents to go home.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is continuing to monitor air quality in the area.

Officials have not yet said what caused the fire at a plastics recycling facility on a portion of the Superfund site, about 45 miles southwest of Nashville. Federal Superfund sites were created to clean up areas that contain hazardous toxic waste.

Environmental officials still have to determine how the fire has affected clean-up efforts.