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. Multiple homes within a mile of the facility were evacuated. Residents were allowed back in their home on Thursday.
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, tells 5 On Your Side an environmental contractor from Atlanta will be on site fully equipped to handle movement of debris and when movement happens its possible for debris, dust and particles to move around which could cause air quality issues. He says its all out of abundance of caution.
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. That 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 cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
MoDNR says environmental emergency response personnel are still on scene and will remain there until the fire has been extinguished and clean-up efforts are underway.