A shelter-in-place order ended Friday night for part of the town of Marinette that was instituted due to smoke from an overnight fire at a paper mill in Menominee, Michigan.
A cancellation announcement was made around 6 p.m. Friday by the Marinette County Division of Emergency Management.
Fire crews continue to monitor a fire that started around 10:40 p.m. Thursday at Resolute Forest Products, 701 Fourth Ave., in Menominee, Michigan.
The plant, a branch of a Montreal paper company, makes paper pulp and employs nearly 100 people.
The fire was reported at a warehouse that Resolute leases from KK Integrated Logistics, according to a statement from David Marshall, director of sustainability and public affairs at Resolute Forest Products.
The company stores bales of recyclable paper in this warehouse. These bales are turned into recycled bleached kraft pulp.
“It is currently difficult to assess damage due to smoke at the scene,” Marshall said. “It appears that the administrative offices located in the rented warehouse succumbed to the fire. We do not know at this time if the fire spread to the core pulp manufacturing area on the west side of the site. From the factory.”
No injuries were reported, Marshall said. The mill is at a standstill.
Menominee County issued an emergency statement in response to the fire on Friday, warning that people with respiratory problems and other medical conditions were at high risk from the smoke. The Marinette Police Department also closed Stephenson Island, Boom Landing, 6th Street Slip and Menekaunee Harbor due to air quality concerns.
Menominee is across the Menominee River and the Michigan-Wisconsin border from Marinette, about an hour’s drive north of Green Bay.
Contact Rebecca Loroff at 920-907-7801 or [email protected] Follow her on Twitter: @RebeccaLoroff.
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