RICHMOND, Ind. — More than 24 hours after a plastics recycling plant caught fire, you could still see the danger hovering over houses in Richmond: a dark cloud of toxic smoke, pushed around by the wind.
"They're saying it's gonna be like this for days," said Richmond resident Josh Beavers. "I have a 3-year-old. I have a puppy. It's not good."
What you can't see, neighbors smell. There's a strong odor of burning plastic and chemical fumes from the fire.
"I definitely smell it right now. It's worse than yesterday," said Richmond resident Corey Brannon.
"You can smell the plastic," Beavers added. "It's nasty."
Despite evacuation orders, Beavers chose to stay. His wife and child left, along with hundreds of neighbors. Most are staying with friends or family.
A Red Cross shelter at the Oak Park Pentecostal Church is available, too, although Red Cross workers say they housed just one family overnight.
The evacuation zone covers a half-mile radius around the warehouse. Health leaders say in that area, especially, fine particles in the air just aren't safe to breathe. They could cause burning eyes, bronchitis, chest tightness and asthma.
PHOTOS: Richmond plastics recycling plant fire | Wednesday update
It's scary for Steve Cox, who lives right near the fire. It's why his pastor, checking on church members, came to help.
"Oh, I'm smelling some nasty stuff. Feels like almost the end of the world," Cox said. "I'm worried about the aftereffects, how it's gonna affect my lungs because I'm already having lung problems as it is, you know, so I'm just a little worried about that. I wasn't going to evacuate and then it just started getting like this. All this smoke."
"So we're going to take him to our house. We live about two miles out of this area and it's a lot safer area," said Billy Dennis, associate pastor of Church Assembly of God.
"He takes care of me," Cox said, "because I have nowhere else to go, so he's helping me out a lot."
As for coming back home, the entire neighborhood is in limbo.
"I don't know. Doesn't look like anytime soon," Cox said. "It's looking pretty rough."