Officials say there is a chemical fire at a chlorine production plant just west of Lake Charles Thursday morning, reported KPLC 7.
Gov. John Bel Edwards issued an emergency alert warning residents of Westlake, Moss Bluff, and Sulphur to shelter in place, turn off their air conditioning and close windows and doors.
The BioLab Inc. complex just south of I-10 is the source of the fire, a state Department of Environmental Quality spokesman said to The Times Picayune.
DEQ staff are monitoring air quality near the site. Initial readings did not detect chlorine releases but more testing will be carried out throughout the day. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to send an aircraft to do flyover monitoring.
The facility produces chlorine for swimming pools, Greg Langley, the DEQ spokesman, added.
