UPDATE: I-10 in Lake Charles Reopened Following Warehouse Fire

(Lake Charles, Louisiana) - UPDATE (11:20am) - From the Louisiana State Police, the shelter in place has been lifted, I-10 is now open.

A BioLab representative released an announcement regarding the incident including actions taken to ensure the safety of the residents of Lake Charles and surrounding areas -

BioLab is actively investigating the origin of smoke emanating from our Lake Charles facility. All of our employees are accounted for with no injuries reported. As always, the safety and well-being of our community in Lake Charles remains of the utmost importance, and we have deployed our own specialized experts onsite to work cooperatively with first responders and local authorities in order to address the incident.

As new information is released, we will update the contents of this story.

Original Story: Travelers on I-10 will have more delays, but more importantly, residents of the affected area have a shelter-in-place order.

Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office announced the issue on Facebook regarding a fire at a Biolab warehouse causing the closure of I-10 in both directions and traffic being rerouted to I-210 loop. Residents have also been ordered to shelter in place, closing all doors, windows and even more seriously, turning off air conditioners when heat indexes will be well into the triple-digits.

An alert received at 07/02/24 10:42:33 from CAP IPAWS:

The Civil Authorities have issued a Hazardous Materials Warning for Calcasieu,
LA beginning at 10:41 am and ending at 11:41 am (fromcap). Per LSP: Shelter-In-
Place for 1/2 mile radius from BioLab due to warehouse fire. I-10 is shut down
from mile marker 25 to 35. Traffic rerouted to I-210. Go inside, shut all doors
and windows and turn off your Air Conditioner.

Please follow all orders from the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office as well as the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. This is a developing story and will be updated as more information arrives.