WNEG-TV

ATHENS - [watch] Firefighters are expected to be on the scene of a fire at a chemical plant in Athens through the night. The J and J Chemical plant that manufactures perfumes for toilet bowls and port-a-johns caught fire just after midnight Wednesday morning. Firefighters worked through much of the day monitoring the fire as they let chemicals burn off.

Chuck Gulley is the Emergency Manager Coordinator for Athens-Clarke County, and he says that right now firefighters are in a planning session to figure out how to gain access to the building to put out hotspots.  

Once those are taken care of, he says then they'll move on to phase two which involves investigating the cause and origin of the fire.

The University of Georgia's Hazard Response team was on the scene collecting water samples from the creek behind the plant to test for chemicals. All the chemicals found were to be within safe limits.

The only chemical that people would be able to actually see should it leak from the creek is called Royal Blue Solution Dye, which is blue in color.

Gulley said that chemical was also considered to be within a safe limit and therefore not dangerous.  

There are no injuries from the fire.

The cause of the fire remains undetermined.