Voluntary evacuation ends in Champion Township

LaBrae schools reopened Thursday.

CHAMPION — Champion Township’s fire chief lifted a voluntary evacuation Thursday morning after workers smothered the last of the fire and smoke from a plastics warehouse fire on Kincaid East Road.

Chief John Hickey said the workers hired by InterGroup International Ltd. to cover and remove the remaining material covered the last of it with dirt by about 11 p.m. Wednesday.

He said residents apparently all returned to their homes by Wednesday night. The shelter that about 40 evacuees used at First Presbyterian Church in Champion was closed at noon Wednesday.

Officials from the Ohio and U.S. Environmental Protection agencies were to remain at the site through the rest of the day Thursday, and then it will be up to the contractor to complete the job, Hickey said.

The Ohio EPA is asking InterGroup to have the remaining material removed by Jan. 1, Hickey said.

The remainder of that work may at times kick up occasional smells in the neighborhood around the warehouse just northwest of Warren, but there should be no further danger from breathing smoke from the fire, Hickey said.

LaBrae schools, which closed Wednesday when the evacuation was ordered, reopened Thursday.

Hickey and others ordered a voluntary evacuation for about 100 residents near the warehouse starting around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The fire at the 42,000-square-foot warehouse broke out around 5 p.m. Monday and sent smoke into the air for more than two more days, as officials determined that the best way to fight the fire was to let it burn itself out rather than put water on it.