BREAKING: Massive Chemical Plant Fire in Georgia, Shelter-In-Place Ordered

A massive chemical fire erupted at the Pinova Plant in Brunswick, Georgia on Saturday.

Emergency officials issued a shelter-in-place order for a half-mile radius of the plant, which manufacturers plastic resin.

Residents who live on St. Simons Island and north of the St. Simons Island Airport had a shelter-in-place order due to wind conditions.

🚨#BREAKING: A half-mile radius Shelter-in-place has been issued following a large chemical plant fire

📌#Brunswick | #Georgia

There has been a large chemical plant fire at a Pinova chemical plant in Brunswick, Georgia. Emergency officials have issued a shelter-in-place order… pic.twitter.com/nCgIt4orRB

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) April 15, 2023

Here are several pictures from a fire chief on scene this morning.

They say the fire was contained in about an hour and a half. @FCN2go pic.twitter.com/u59vXjNgbh

— Renata Di Gregorio (@RenataFCNews) April 15, 2023

The fire reportedly reignited Saturday afternoon.

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Alert:

Due to wind conditions – a Shelter in Place has been advised for SSI areas north of airport on SSI along with 1/2 mile radius of plant

The Pinova Plant Fire has reignited.

Brunswick City Fire Department and Glynn County Fire are on scene.

— Glynn County Georgia (@GlynnCountyGA) April 15, 2023

There were no reported injuries, but officials are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze.

First Coast News reported:

A massive cloud of dark smoke clouded the sky over the Pinova plant, which manufactures plastic resin. No one was hurt, but emergency officials are investigating what caused the fire. They say workers were nearby when the fire started at about 7 a.m.

“They heard a pop, came out and they saw there was a fire in their area,” said Glynn County Fire and Rescue Chief Vincent DiCristofalo.

Pinova Senior Director of Operations Ron Kurtz says the fire was in the plant’s terpene resins unit.

“It was terpene resins,” Kurtz said when asked about the smoke plume. “This is material you use every day, a lot of adhesives, glues, that’s where this material’s going. It’s also used in some food products.”

The emergency management director for the county says one of their initial goals was to identify what chemicals could be involved in the plume of smoke.

“We immediately contacted National Weather Service to get a plume model to see where the the cloud was going,” said Andrew Leanza, director of Glynn County Emergency Management and Homeland Security. “So we identified it, our initial isolation zones, we weren’t concerned when we looked at the ERG once we identified the chemicals so it was in our favor today. But that was something that we’ve been monitoring and we’ll continue to monitor.”