ATLANTA — For the second night in a row, officials are responding to an incident at a plastics facility. This time, it happened in DeKalb County.
According to crews on scene, firefighters responded around 7:50 p.m. to 4360 Northeast Expressway, just north of Spaghetti Junction.
When crews got to the scene, they found heavy smoke coming from the warehouse, called Magnolia Plastics, Inc. Right now, officials said the flames are out, and it appears the fire was contained to only one 55-gallon drum. However, officials said there is still a large amount of smoke inside the building.
According to the website, the facility specializes in adhesives, anti-ballistic materials, coatings, conductive materials, filament winding, fire retardant materials and more.
At this time, fire officials said they were unsure of the exact substance inside the drum, but they have been told it is a by-product of a mixing process. They believe something went wrong with that particular mixture to cause the fire. They are still not sure what caused the drum to ignite.
No one was inside the building at the time. Investigators are not sure of the extent of the damage, but the Fire Marshal is en route. They have no reason at this time to suspect foul play.
Hazmat crews were on scene initially and took air samples to determine whether they needed to evacuate an adjacent motel - they ultimately did, out of a precaution.
Denise Williams, was staying next door at the Lodge America. She said staff woke everyone up and told them they had to evacuate to the QuikTrip next door. She said they were told there was a chemical spill and they had to vacate the hotel.
"They didn't give us any warning or tell us how long it would be, so we're all just kind of going over to QuikTrip, trying to figure out what's going on," she said.
Photos: DeKalb Fire crews responding to situation at plastics plant
This is the second report of an incident at a plastics-processing facility this week.
Thursday night, an intense fire tore through the Superior Recreational Products plant in Carrollton, causing the 80,000 square-foot building to collapse in on itself.
RELATED | Fire destroys Carrollton plastics plant
Between 80 and 100 firefighters were able to contain the flames, and crews remained on the scene late into the evening to put out hotspots.
No one was hurt in this incident. Investigators have yet to determine the cause of that fire.
