FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. — Possible air quality concerns in Fredericktown has closed schools for Friday as a precaution.
Around 6 a.m. Friday, the school district notified 5 On Your Side they would be closing due to possible concerns with air quality. Madison County Sheriff Katy McCutcheon also advised residents in the area to keep their windows closed and turn off air conditioning units to limit the amount of air entering the house.
The fire happened Wednesday at Critical Mineral Recovery, a battery recycling facility outside Fredericktown, Missouri.
Madison County Sheriff Katy McCutcheon said they received authorization to try and suppress the fire. McCutchen said there is concern the suppression will make the air unsafe for the school community and are canceling classes out of precaution.
Schools were open on Thursday, the day after the fire.
Al Watkins, an attorney for Critical Mineral Recovery, told 5 On Your Side an environmental contractor from Atlanta will be on site fully equipped to handle movement of debris and when movement happens, it's possible for debris, dust and particles to move around which could cause air quality issues.
"The EPA, the Missouri DNR, environmental experts, and CMR wanted to act out of an abundance of caution and have children and other in the community put in a position to not to be exposed to a potential flair up," Watkins said.
Two days later, 5 On Your Side Megan Kernan reported a noticeable odor in the air.
Multiple homes within a mile of the facility were evacuated. Most residents were allowed back in their home on Thursday.
However, Shirley Tyrrell lives on the only street that is still evacuated. The battery plant is basically in the backyard of seven homes.
"I opened the door and the door actually was blowing back at me. I couldn't get out the door and I saw this black smoke and I'm like, oh my god," she said. "In the beginning, they told us to leave. They said you gotta get out and I said 'is there any place we're supposed to go?' and they said no, just get out of here - so we got out of here. And then yesterday they said we really would prefer that you stay out of your houses for at least a couple more days."
Tyrrell said it's all up in the air on when she'll be able to return home.
"I'm concerned and I'm wondering what's going to happen in the future. If you need to sell the house, who's going to want to buy the house with that big place. And are they going to rebuild? I don't know," she said.
The Environmental Protection Agency tells 5 On Your Side they have deployed two on-scene coordinators to monitor air quality.
"After integrating into the Incident Command for the response the Fredericktown Fire Chief, serving as the Incident Commander, requested EPA to perform roving air monitoring," said Jonathan Klusmeyer, press officer for the EPA.
Since Thursday, the EPA is conducting roving and stationary air monitoring, which includes 24-hour air monitoring at the school, EPA spokesperson Kellen Ashford said.
"EPA’s air monitoring detected one exceedance above EPA’s action levels for particulate matter in the evacuation zone immediately north of the fire during the initial firefighting efforts on Wednesday, Oct. 30, but has not detected any exceedances since," Ashford said in a statement.
If air monitoring results exceed EPA’s action levels, the EPA said they will relay it to the public through 5 On Your Side and social media.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources confirmed Friday that fish were killed in a nearby creek and are beginning testing for the cause.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.