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Fire engulfs Ark. nail products company

Firefighters have contained a chemical fire at a factory that produces artificial fingernails and related products in central Arkansas.
Image:
A firefighter puts water on a fire at the Onyx Laboratories plant on Thursday.Danny Johnston / AP
/ Source: msnbc.com staff and news service reports

Firefighters have contained a chemical fire at a factory that produces artificial fingernails and related products in central Arkansas.

North Little Rock Fire Assistant Chief Steve Smith says the fire at the Onyx Laboratories plant in Maumelle, just north of Little Rock, continued to burn early Thursday afternoon but is under control.

Smith says one person was taken to a hospital, but that he has no details of that person's injuries.

He says up to 4,000 gallons of acetone ignited in the blaze. The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management earlier said some 40,000 gallons were alight.

Workers at the plant were filling bottles of acetone in the back of the building when the fire started, .

Fire engines blocked the road leading to the facility as firefighters sprayed water on an outbuilding where the fire burned. The building was used to fill bottles of nail polish remover for retail sale. Workers at light-industry businesses in the immediate area were evacuated.

The state Department of Environmental Quality was testing the air around the site for safety.