Explosion at Greenville chemical plant sends black smoke into air
Residents near the Loveland Products facility were ordered to shelter in place Wednesday morning after a fire involving herbicide chemicals.
By Eric Collins ·
An explosion at the Loveland Products chemical plant in Greenville, Mississippi, sent a large plume of black smoke into the sky just after 7 a.m. Central Standard Time on Wednesday.
City officials confirmed the incident in a news release. Greenville is located in the Mississippi Delta region and serves a population of approximately 26,000 people. The city sits about 120 miles northwest of Jackson, the state capital.
Sara Moreland Hester, a deputy emergency management director for Washington County and a local firefighter, stated that no injuries were immediately reported. By midmorning, she noted that the fire was under control but had not yet been fully extinguished.
Preliminary information from plant management indicated that the explosion involved a fire associated with a herbicide chemical. Nutrien, the parent company of Loveland, said in a statement that the fire was being managed and that plant leadership was coordinating with first responders. Loveland, which is based in Loveland, Colorado, produces fertilizer, plant nutrition, and crop protection products.
The city asked residents living near the plant and in areas to the east and south to shelter in place for several hours due to potentially hazardous smoke. This advisory was lifted just before noon in the mostly rural area on the eastern edge of the city.
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality reported that its emergency response team and an air monitoring contractor were assessing potential air quality impacts at the site.
