so i went outside, and there was a tremendous amount of smoke and a lot of flames happening at that point. reporter: officials say the massive fire broke out at a factory in the town of richmond tuesday, spewing so much toxic smoke into the air, it appeared temporarily on weather radar. has been a challenging fire just because it s plastics. reporter: the city weekly issued a warning to residents within a half-mile to stay indoors. the epa is now investigating whether asbestos-containing% materials and other carcinogenic chemicals may have left the site and the smoke. fortunately, the toxic compounds we are looking for were not seen, but we need to keep in mind that smoke is harmful, and we are seeing smoke in our particular meters. reporter: the mayor says the business has been a fire hazard for years and has been fighting in court since at least 2019 to get the owner to clean it up. chief brown said plastic was stacked from wall-to-wall and floor to ceiling. it wasn t a
pillar of american kitchen culture? announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening, and welcome. residents of another small american town are tonight trying to comprehend the danger they face from a noxious cloud of burning materials that have forced up to 2,000 people to flee their homes. multiple fires burning right now in richmond, indiana, on a 14-acre former factory site. the fire is fueled by plastic stored on the site. the fires are spewing an am news column of black smoke. the dangerous plume captured on weather radar and satellite images. tonight u.s. environmental protection agency teams are on the ground measuring the air trying to learn the level of danger. maggie vespa is there for us tonight. reporter: a billowing plume of hazardous black smoke hangs over richmond, indiana, tonight. spreading fast. reporter: after a former plastics recycling plant went up in flames tuesday.