SALEM, Ohio — Farmers around Parkersburg, West Virginia, who were impacted by smoke and ash from a recent warehouse fire should check their animals’ feed for signs of damage.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture advises producers with concerns to consider using hay or feed that has been stored under cover or wrapped to help reduce the potential for contamination.
It’s not clear yet what environmental impacts there are from the massive fire at the Peoples Cartage warehouse that started on July 4 and burned for four days. The facility contained, among other things, plastic pellets used for making plastic products, according to reporting by WV Metro News.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrissey declared a state of emergency for Wood County to make state resources available to the community as it responded to the fire.
Smoke from the blaze was seen for miles. A shelter-in-place order was ordered for residences around the warehouse because air quality had degraded due to the high smoke-related particulate levels.
The fire was extinguished on July 7. Clean-up of the site began, but was temporarily halted on July 10 after the WV Department of Health found there could be asbestos present at the site.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture is coordinating with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. EPA to gather more information about potential impacts to agricultural operations from debris fallout associated with the fire.
The EPA is deploying a specialized mobile laboratory and field analytical service to provide on-site testing of agricultural samples collected from local farms and home gardens, coordinated by WVDA.
The WVDA created an online portal for farmers, gardeners and other agricultural producers to submit information about how they were impacted: agriculture.wv.gov/july-2026-parkersburg-fire-info-request/
Information submitted through the portal will help WVDA identify potentially affected agricultural operations and home gardeners, assess the extent of any impacts and determine whether additional outreach, monitoring or assistance may be appropriate.”
The WV DEP has also been testing surface waters near the site of the fire, including the Little Kanawha River.
