THOUSANDS EVACUATED AFTER PLANT FIRE

MAYSVILLE, KY. -- Thousands of people left their homes on both sides of the Ohio River as a fire in a fertilizer plant burned through tons of potentially explosive and toxic chemicals.

Authorities let the fire to burn itself out late yesterday afternoon at the Cargill Inc. plant, which was not in operation when the blaze broke out at 2:30 a.m.

About 2,500 people left their homes in Maysville and across the river in southern Ohio's Brown and Adams counties while the fire blazed, but returned home after police lifted their evacuation order. The plant, 60 miles upriver from Cincinnati, contained stockpiles of herbicides and pesticides as well as 420 tons of ammonium nitrate, the fertilizer that made up half of the deadly explosive that brought down the federal building in Oklahoma City.

The Environmental Protection Agency set up air monitors in southern Ohio to test for ammonia, considered the most dangerous of the chemicals. Emergency officials decided to let the fire burn itself out partly because of fear that it was too dangerous for firefighters and partly to reduce environmental risks, said Maysville City Manager Dennis Redmond. He said putting water or foam on the fire would have resulted in more toxic vapor clouds.

"By allowing the fire to burn, the pesticides and herbicides have been able to completely combust, which pretty much gets rid of the toxic effects," said Steve Zweigart, local deputy coordinator for the state disaster agency.

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