Video: Houston Warehouse Expected to Burn Through the Weekend

HOUSTON, Miss. (WCBI) -The black clouds of smoke could be seen for miles.

It took much of Friday to contain a massive fire at an old textile plant in Houston.

Schools closed early. MEMA is on site. And, area firefighters continue to wrangle with the fire.

That’s because sitting inside this old textile factory was 2.2 million pounds of polyfoam.

“Polyfoam is a petroleum based product so it’s gonna burn and burn for a while. That’s what’s putting off all this black smoke.”

Smoke, that could potentially be toxic to residents.

“The winds helping us right now, it’s keeping the smoke aloft.”

The factory is 40 thousand square feet-and every inch of it has burned.

With the potential of toxic air, other agencies have shown up for assistance.

“We have the Department of Environmental Quality coming out tomorrow their going to be air monitoring for us, so we should know more when they get here as far as the air goes.”

In addition, area fire agencies and public works departments are contributing dirt and extinguishing foam to help fight the fire.

“We’re gonna be out here as long as it takes, might be till tomorrow, you just never know.”

“We’re just urging residents to keep their windows and doors closed to keep the smoke out of their homes, it’s not a major deal but we just don’t want it in their homes. ”
Blankenship says the fire is expected to burn through the weekend.

The department plans to monitor the smoke and flames closely.