Fire broke out at a chemical plant in Waxahachie, Texas, on Monday, sending a thick column of black smoke high into the sky and forcing the evacuation of an eight-block radius around the plant."Everybody is out and safe," Donald Golden, environmental health and safety manager for Magnablend Inc., the plant's owner, said of employees and visitors to the plant. <br />There was no immediate word on the cause on the fire, which began at around 10:30 a.m., Golden said. <br />Officials ordered the evacuation of a school, apartment building and other industrial sites within an eight-block radius of the plant, said Diana Buckley, an official with Ellis County government. A shelter-in-place advisory is in effect for some smaller nearby towns northwest of the city, including Red Oak, she said. <br />The plant stores and mixes numerous chemicals, said Amy Hollywood, a city spokeswoman.
