Fire forces temporary evacuation in St. Charles, Minnesota.

St. Charles, Minn. - A fire destroys the North Star Foods plant in St. Charles, Minn. on April 17. The fire occurred shortly after 10 a.m. The town was evacuated when the food plant went up in flames threatening the residence's health with its toxic flames. Residence are now back in their homes, but the effects of the fire are still very much present. North Star plans on rebuilding in St. Charles, but the effects of the fire have left many individuals without jobs for the time being and water streams in nearby White Water State Park contaminated causing many of its fish to die.
When it comes to crisis communication, the city of St. Charles and all reporters and officials involved did a great job. They immediately informed the individuals involved and then informed the media. With such a large evacuation, it is easy for rumors to surface, but officials did a great job of getting the facts out as soon as they could so that these rumors did not occur.
One minor problem is some speculation has occurred over the recent death of fish. It has not technically been released that the fish in Whitewater died due to the fire, but it is a given. The situation is under investigation, but initial reports have connected the deaths directly to the fire due to leaks of ammonium in the streams. This is a case of speculation, but for all of the chances for speculation to occur, overall they did a great job of hindering it.
I am sure that North Star Foods given that it is a large company, has a crisis plan for situations like this. They will have to use a lot of public relations in the next months if not years to return a positive image to the community. They have already regained some of it by deciding to rebuild in St. Charles again and not relocating, but they still have a long way to go.