Most people like to see a big to-do made about their home towns.

But, not like this:

Apex Plant Fire, Explosions Lead To Evacuations

POSTED: 10:47 pm EDT October 5, 2006
UPDATED: 1:20 am EDT October 6, 2006

APEX, N.C. -- Town officials declared a state of emergency early Friday and evacuated about half of the town after a cloud containing chlorine gas spewed from a volatile industrial fire.

Apex Town Manager Bruce Radford said a leak at the EQ North Carolina plant on Investment Boulevard sent several large plumes of chlorine gas into the air around 9 p.m. A large fire broke out at the plant afterward, with multiple explosions heard nearby.

"This is the worst possible hazardous materials incident you could have," Radford said.

Swell. Just damn superb.

I heard about this while driving home from work in a brief snippet on the radio, before the station returned to the NC State "Wolfpack" football post-game coverage. Great programming decision, guys.

I called my brother in California, and asked him to go to Google News. While I drove, he read the news to me over the phone, and I realized that — whew — my home is as far from the incident as it can be while still within the town of Apex. The prevailing winds work in my favor.

I see now on the local news that there's an evacuation center at an elementary school that's a mile closer to the site of the incident than I am. If there was any hazard here, that school wouldn't be used as a shelter.

But I have friends who live in the area affected by the evacuation order. I hope they're OK. I hope they know they can knock on my door if they need to do so.

I still don't know who won the State game.

Update, 4:30am: Yeah, pride. I've had the local news on most of the time. People are behaving well, there's a minimum of complaining, many evacuees are bringing their own supplies... people are acting like adults.

Best of all, I haven't heard of any injuries. Let's hope it stays that way.

Posted by Russ at 01:42 AM, October 6, 2006 in News & North Carolina