BELDING, Mich. (WOOD) — Belding’s city manager is calling for more to be done about a plant in disrepair that poses a potential disastrous and deadly threat.
Ionia County health officials issued an order (PDF) Friday demanding that Kassouni Manufacturing Inc., 815 S. Front St., cease operations involvingtrichloroisocyanuric acid, a chemical the company uses in the production of tablets made for chlorinating swimming pools.
The chemical can catch fire when exposed to small amounts of water, releasing a dangerous cocktail of chemicals that includes chlorine gas, which can be deadly when inhaled.
The action against Kassouni came after the latest in a series of fires and uncontrolled chemical reactions at the plant. The incidents have involved relatively small amounts of the chemical collected during cleaning.
On June 22, the Belding Fire Department responded to the plant to find a haze in the air that residents said smelled strongly of chlorine.
“I woke up because I could smell strong chlorine and I told my husband, ‘Something’s going on down at the plant again, let’s quick close our windows,'” Wanda Cotton, who lives near the plant, told 24 Hour News 8 Tuesday.
That incident prompted Belding City Manager John Niemela to sound the alarms. He contacted local, state and federal health officials to assess the situation.
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