READING, Pa. – Six months after a massive fire at a former chemical plant in Reading, work isn’t over. The Environmental Protection Agency continues to pack up chemicals at the former Lincoln Chemical Warehouse site.
It’s a much different scene Friday than it was six months ago when two fires tore through the former Lincoln Chemical Company in the 600 block of South Ninth Street in Reading within a week.
Authorities have spent this time not only cleaning up the site but sorting through chemicals stored at the facility determining what each of them are.
“There are acids and detergents and some of them are benign and some of them are not and sometimes if they’re mixed together they can be a hazard,” says Adam Ortiz, administrator of EPA’s Mid-Atlantic region.
There are about 500 sealed drums storing the chemicals, and knowing such hazardous material is down the street concerns neighbors.
“We’re worried, obviously we’re worried,” says José Hernández. “We don’t know what kind of chemicals they are because we’re not experts in that field, we don’t really know.”
EPA officials say they’ve continued to work closely with state and local officials throughout the process to help keep everyone safe.
“It’s important that we get this stuff out of here as quickly as possible but also in a way that’s thoughtful and proper,” Ortiz says.
But neighbors worry it’s already past the point of quickly.
“It has taken too long,” Ortiz says. “It’s been six months, you know what I mean, we don’t know if when there was a fire, maybe we breathed something in, we don’t know.”
When might the chemicals be gone?
“We’ve been working with a variety of hazardous processing materials facilities that specialize in disposing of hazardous materials to make sure that this stuff gets out by mid-summertime,” Ortiz says.
Officials say they’re keeping the building and containers inside secure in the meantime, and as to what caused the fires? That is still under investigation.
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