Firefighters responded to a fire at a northern Illinois chemical plant on Wednesday that sent plumes of smoke in the air.

Residents near Carus Chemical in La Salle were told to shelter in place by local officials via an emergency alert. The alert went out to people who live in the city’s third and fourth wards. 

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La Salle Fire Chief Jerry Janick said the public should avoid the area so that firefighters can focus on dousing the blaze. “In order to deactivate it, you will need a 1:1:1 mixture of 1 gallon of water, 1 gallon of peroxide, 1 gallon of vinegar,” police said.

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The News-Tribune reported that witnesses could hear explosions being at around 9 am. This was followed by smoke that was visible from the plant. Workers were evacuated from the site due to the fire, which was reported to have originated at the plant’s shipping department.

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Smoke was seen pouring out of the plant in a video from the scene, about 94 miles southwest of Chicago. 

There have been no evacuations ordered in the city yet. “Our fire departments have done a great job of bringing this down,” Deputy City Clerk Brent Bader said, “Obviously when they arrived on the scene it was quite a worse situation. But right now, we are just concerned with making sure everything is maintained and all of our first responders are going to be in there as well.”

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The Illinois EPA is monitoring the situation.