SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. — A massive fire at East Jordan Plastics in South Haven Friday took crews about four hours and an estimated two million gallons of water to get under control.
The fire also forced a power shutdown in parts of South Haven, prompting some businesses to close early as crews worked to battle the flames.
WATCH: East Jordan Plastics fire prompts cleanup, environmental testing
Sarah Washegesic, the front-of-house manager at The Lodge, was heading into work Friday afternoon when she saw East Jordan Plastics up in flames.
“It was just unbelievable; it looked like a movie, like fake how the smoke was just billowing up,” Washegesic said.
The Lodge is less than a mile from the factory. Washegesic said she and her coworkers could feel the impact of the fire.
“I felt it outside but when I got in here, my coworkers said they could feel the ground rumble as well and we were like, ‘oh god what is that?’”
As FOX 17 previously reported, the fire started Friday afternoon in pallets of plastic stored outside the facility before spreading inside the factory. The cause remains under investigation.
Because the fire was close to critical energy infrastructure at an electric utility substation, an AEP transmission feed supplying power to the area was cut.
That left parts of South Haven without power and forced some businesses to close early. The Lodge was one of those businesses.
“We shut down at five, so at least four hours we lost out on,” Washegesic said.
While Washegesic is thankful no one was hurt, she said the fire also raises questions about what comes next for the community.
East Jordan Plastics is handling the cleanup with oversight from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
EGLE says the Environmental Protection Agency conducted air quality testing and found no contaminants exceeded action levels. East Jordan Plastics will continue monitoring the air quality on its own.
Cleanup efforts on site currently include:
- Testing standing water
- Testing for PFAS to determine whether the Class A foam used to fight the fire caused additional environmental concerns
- Collecting plastic nurdles that spread around the site to prevent the distribution of microplastics
- Spraying water to control dust while working to prevent additional runoff
“I’m just happy they contained it and hopefully it’s done,” Washegesic said.
FOX 17 will continue to follow the cleanup and environmental testing and provide updates as results become available.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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