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A mas­sive fire broke out yes­ter­day at Ice Con­nec­tion Lim­it­ed, a sty­ro­foam man­u­fac­tur­ing plant in Pi­ar­co, send­ing thick black smoke across the Churchill Roo­sevelt High­way and caus­ing heavy traf­fic dis­rup­tions.

The blaze start­ed short­ly af­ter mid­day on the north­ern side of the 100-me­tre fac­to­ry and quick­ly spread through the build­ing, which pro­duces sty­ro­foam prod­ucts for ice. Flames and smoke were vis­i­ble for miles, and mo­torists were forced to slow down or pull over.

Guardian Me­dia ar­rived be­fore fire­fight­ers and saw em­ploy­ees rush­ing to re­move ve­hi­cles from the com­pound. Sev­er­al ex­plo­sions were heard as parts of the struc­ture col­lapsed.