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(Joe Wilkins Avatar)   By (https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins) Joe Wilkins      Published  Oct 21, 2026 12:57 PM EDT           (https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=futurism.com) Add Futurism (opens Google in a new window or tab)      More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results.        (An illustration shows a forest scene obscured by mist.)   Shutterstock / Nanda Kalajna    Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech  (handle_newsletter_email_submission) (830f2fa4d7) (FUTinline) (0) Email address  (Enter your email) (Please enter a valid email address)  Sign Up  Thank you!           The Northern suburbs of Toledo, Ohio turned into a real life (https://keypennews.org/stories/white-noise-by-don-delillo-the-laughing-voice-of-doom,6373) Don DeLillo novel overnight, after an explosion at a chemical facility sent plumes of industrial compounds billowing into the sky. According (https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/north-toledo-hazmat-situation-evacuations/512-23d84bbb-60fc-4c49-aaf4-57ca35a7f8c6) to the local station  (https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/north-toledo-hazmat-situation-evacuations/512-23d84bbb-60fc-4c49-aaf4-57ca35a7f8c6) WTOL11  , the blast happened at a chemical distribution site in Ohio’s Lucas County on Tuesday night, prompting an immediate evacuation order for anybody living within one mile of the disaster zone. Those within three miles were given an order to shelter in place. In a press conference on Wednesday, city emergency officials explained that the leaking chemical exhaust is glycidyl methacrylate, an industrial manufacturing chemical broadly suspected to be (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33155520/) carcinogenic to humans . Maps show numerous residential neighborhoods in the immediate vicinity, the closest being a trailer park just 0.25 miles as the crow flies from the site of the chemical explosion. The nearby Ottawa river, a tributary of Lake Erie, is situated under a half mile to the South. Complicating matters for first responders and any broader evacuation order is the onset of a (https://www.wtol.com/article/weather/weather-impact/weather-alert-day-dense-fog-hazardous-morning-commute-hazmat-incident-north-toledo/512-b5559245-ae96-423c-b9a1-3701325ec179) fog alert , which combined with the hazmat emergency has turned Toledo into America’s (https://futurism.com/science-energy/wildfire-smoke-texas-flooding-el-nino-climate-disaster) apocalypse zone du jour . Images circulated by (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19mHTMou8t/) WTOL11 on Facebook show the cataclysmic scenes unfolding across the city, with commenters expressing confusion over whether the clouds of haze were caused by the airborne chemical leak, the fog, or a noxious mix of both. “I can’t see out my window,” one Toledo resident wrote. “Should I and my dog leave?” More on disasters:  (https://futurism.com/science-energy/giant-oil-tanker-leaking-oil-oman-nature-preserve) Giant Oil Tanker Runs Aground in Marine Nature Preserve, Spills Nonstop for Weeks    Add Futurism as a (https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=futurism.com) preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting.   (https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins) (Joe Wilkins Avatar)   (https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins) Joe Wilkins   Correspondent    I’m a tech and labor correspondent for Futurism, where my beat includes the role of emerging technologies in governance, surveillance, and labor.   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