A leaking outdoor tank at Sterling Pipe & Tube sent an unidentified chemical drifting into the air over North Toledo late Tuesday, and by midnight everyone living or working within a mile of the plant at 1050 Progress Ave. had been ordered out of the area.
Emergency crews were first dispatched to the Progress Avenue facility at about 9:25 p.m. Tuesday, according to The Toledo Blade. The Lucas County Emergency Management Agency issued its evacuation order at 10:48 p.m., and the zone around the plant kept growing — first a half-mile radius, then a full mile — as the release continued.
Toledo Fire & Rescue Pvt. Sheldon Collins said the tank sits outside the building and was leaking chemical onto the ground, and the facility itself was evacuated. There is a chemical in the air, Collins told reporters — and as of the early hours of Wednesday, officials still had not identified what it is.
Two neighborhoods sit squarely inside the evacuation zone: the Raintree Village mobile home park and the Alexis Addition. Washington Township officials went into Raintree Village to help clear residents out of their homes, while Toledo Fire & Rescue worked the scene at the plant.
Evacuees were directed to Shoreland Elementary School, opened as a temporary shelter, and to the Meijer parking lot off East Alexis Road, where the Red Cross and TARTA buses were stationed to take people in and provide shelter as needed.
Crews from 13 Action News at the scene reported a haze hanging in the air and a chemical smell, with the plume moving and cutting visibility on roadways across the area; drivers were urged to slow down and use caution. The City of Toledo noted that dense fog was also covering the city overnight, making it hard to tell fog from plume — and stressed that what matters is a resident's location relative to the evacuation zone, not what the air looks like.
Getting around the zone is its own problem: Enterprise Boulevard is closed between Stickney Avenue and Benore Road, and the railroads running near the plant have been shut down while crews work.
So many residents called 911 about the leak that dispatchers were overloaded, interfering with other emergency calls. Toledo Fire & Rescue is asking the public not to call 911 about the incident — anyone with questions or non-emergency needs should call Engage Toledo instead.
For everyone outside the one-mile circle, the city was explicit: there is no evacuation order and no shelter-in-place order beyond the zone, and if that changes, the City, Toledo Fire & Rescue and Lucas County EMA will announce it directly.
No injuries or fatalities have been reported, and officials stress there has been no explosion — only the release. But the release was still ongoing in the early hours of Wednesday, with crews remaining on scene to monitor through the night and no all-clear yet for the families waiting to go home.
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