Ron Arbisi has lived in the home just southwest of Carus Chemical in LaSalle for 53 years. He never saw before anything like the explosion and fire that happened just before nine this morning. He believes the flames reached 150 feet into the air. In his home, he heard booms and rumbles and thought a bunch of garbage trucks were making noise.
Some people said they heard one or more booms around a mile away. Phil Weeks saw the smoke from some distance away and went to the neighborhood to help his girlfriend get out of her house. Gavin Sinkiewicz works at AutoCraft Collision Repair two blocks from Carus and says the noise sounded like several traffic crashes outside. He suspects he’ll get business from some Carus employees whose cars were damaged.
Carus Chemical makes compounds used in water treatment and environmental cleanup. Some people, especially northwest of the LaSalle location, may find a greenish substance on their things outside. It’s an oxidizer. The LaSalle Police Department says don’t touch it. You can neutralize it though with a mix of equal parts water, vinegar, and peroxide.