Fredericktown residents respond to the explosion of a battery factory right next to their home

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. (KFVS) – Some residents are staying out of their homes tonight as the Environmental Protection Agency monitors air quality near Critical Mineral Recovery.

“I saw the black cloud as if it was covering the sun, and my instincts kicked in. I knew immediately what was happening,” said Bethany Atherton.

Bethany Atherton describes what she and her three daughters saw Wednesday afternoon when the The critical mineral extraction facility exploded next to her house.

Atherton and her husband Joseph will return to their property on Thursday.

Bethany said she picked up her children and went straight to her mother’s house after it happened.

“We left the site as quickly as humanly possible because I wasn’t taking any chances. I mean, you think about what the smoke plume looked like in aerial photographs and so on, even in our house if fumes would have come in, and I can’t imagine that situation,” Atherton said.

Kathy McDaniel and her husband, Dave, have lived right next to the factory for the past few years.

“I just happened to hear a loud explosion and heard the guy screaming and I got scared,” McDaniel said.

She said her house was filled with thick black smoke when it happened.

“I was choking and so I had to feel my way to get dressed so I could get out of the house and that’s what I did,” McDaniel said. “And then I made sure all my neighbors were gone and I was the last one out of here.”

Wayne James and his wife live down the street, across from the battery factory. He explained his first reaction to the explosion.

“That was the end of our house and the whole neighborhood, and hopefully no people,” James said.

He wonders what this could mean for his property now and whether he wants to sell it in the future.

“But people will be suspicious. You know how you can cause something that was a huge fire, huge explosions,” James said. “And I could understand that, but no one buys it, we stay.”

According to Al Watkins, the lawyer for Critical Mineral Recoveryoperations at the facility have been interrupted. But he says all 75 workers at the plant will continue to receive their wages.