A fire in the dryer of the Drax pellet production facility in Gloster, Mississippi, triggered an emergency response from multiple counties this morning.
J.D. Paulk of the Amite County Emergency Management Agency told the Mississippi Free Press in an interview on Sunday afternoon that the fire was under control with the support of the Amite County Volunteer Fire Department, as well as mutual aid from Franklin County and Wilkinson County.
Speaking with the Mississippi Free Press, Gloster residents described seeing multiple fire trucks and other emergency vehicles stationed near the plant at around 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. They also reported seeing smoke rising from the facility well into the afternoon.
“The smoke is still out there, like a chimney is overloaded,” Patricia McGhee, a Gloster resident who lives about a mile away from the plant, told the Mississippi Free Press in a Sunday phone interview. She also described smelling a persistent burning odor that reminded her of burnt eggs.
Videos spread on social media that showed a dramatic plume of smoke rising from the facility on Sunday morning.
“That’s actually part of the process of them getting it out of there,” Paulk said, adding that the burned material was natural wood products and did not present a health or environmental concern to the surrounding area.
“It was natural products, chip parts and stuff,” he said.
First responders took control of the fire roughly an hour after it began. He said the area is completely safe and no injuries were reported.
Drax’s wood pellet plant has been mired in controversy since it opened in Gloster a decade ago. The facility has faced multiple fines over air pollution violations, and residents have blamed it for worsening air quality and widespread health problems in the majority-Black town.
Late last year, a Mississippi permit board approved Drax’s request to scale up production at the Gloster facility despite fierce opposition from a subset of residents.