Rain Dampens N.C. Chemical Plant Fire

North Carolina officials say a fire at a hazardous waste plant has "gone down significantly" thanks to a steady rain — and the fact that the plant's contents are burning out.

Air quality experts tell CBS News correspondent Jim Krasula the rain "is a good thing, it's actually dissipating the toxic cloud, cleansing the area. Meanwhile, hazardous materials crews are approaching the fire site, to begin an assessment.

The blaze at EQ Industrial Services, a hazardous waste business that housed a variety of volatile chemicals, began late Thursday in Apex, a suburban Raleigh town of about 28,000.

It's a company that packages hazardous materials and then transports them for safe disposal, reports Renee Chou of CBS affiliate WRAL-TV.

As many as 17,000 residents were asked to evacuate their homes after the fire shot flames some 150 feet into the sky and released a cloud of fumes.

Hospital officials said 18 people were sent to emergency rooms.

When he arrived at the scene, town manager Bruce Radford said, a chlorine cloud rose 50 feet in the air and flames shot three times as high. He estimated there were 20 to 30 explosions at the plant.

The fire jumped the chemical plant site and appeared to have burned four petroleum tanks belonging to another company, said Mayor Keith Weatherly. That likely accounted for the explosions, he said.

Hours after asking almost half the town's resident to evacuate, officials ordered additional evacuations for several hundred more homes when a plume of smoke and chemicals moved.

Residents as far as 2 miles away could see the plume or smell the chemicals, officials said.

The White House says the Environmental Protection Agency has dispatched personnel including toxic pollution specialists to the explosion in North Carolina, reports CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer.

"You can't put foam or water on it," Weatherly said. "That just exacerbates it."

A yellow haze lingered over downtown and there was a faint smell of chlorine in the air. Police lined up along the main street that runs through the town's business district, blocking both ends of the road. Officials said Apex's downtown and schools were closed Friday.

"People are going to want to come in and sight-see at this fire scene," Radford said. "They will either get terribly sick or they will be arrested. No questions asked."

Of the 18 people hospitalized, eight were law enforcement officers and one is a firefighter who complained of nausea and respiratory problems.

Nine other residents were being treated for "respiratory distress," said WakeMed spokeswoman Heather Monackey.

About 100 elderly residents were evacuated from a nursing home in Apex and were sheltered in nearby hospitals.

State environmental officials warned of a potential disaster six month ago at the hazardous waste materials facility.

EQ Industrial Services Inc. failed to "maintain and operate the facility to minimize the possibility of a sudden or non-sudden release of hazardous waste ... which could threaten human health or the environment," the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources found when issuing a $32,000 fine in March for six violations.

The fine, detailed on the department's Web site, was almost twice as much as any other assessed against a hazardous waste facility this year in North Carolina.

But a spokesman for EQ Industrial Services, which has more than 50 years of experience in the business, cautioned the violations may not have had anything to do with the fire that started late Thursday.

"That could range from anything — like a spill of materials that could get in a storm drain," said Robert Doyle from the company's headquarters in Detroit. "It could be completely unrelated to something like a fire or explosion."

Cory Cataldo said his family was awakened around 1 a.m. by a knock at the door, and an unidentified man told them to evacuate because of a chemical fire.

"That's about all I needed to know," he said. "My first concern was just to get everybody out."