TOLEDO, Ohio — The tank that has been venting chemical gas over north Toledo for two days has stopped releasing material, the city announced Thursday evening — the biggest shift in the incident since the evacuation zone was reduced to a quarter-mile.

Hazmat crews were able to approach the tank for inspection on Thursday, according to the city’s 8:25 p.m. update on its incident page, and found that the 5,500-gallon tank holding glycidyl methacrylate at the MC Tank Transport terminal on Progress Avenue is no longer releasing gas. Local outlets including 13abc, WTOL 11 and The Blade have been covering the incident around the clock.

Cleanup of the site is now expected to move to federal hands. The city said it will turn the scene over to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as soon as a site safety plan is received. The U.S. EPA is already monitoring around the perimeter of the evacuation zone, and crews will continue to watch the site overnight Thursday into Friday.

The evacuation order remains in effect for the quarter-mile zone — 64 households — and will stay in place until the explosion risk has passed. No all-clear has been issued.

The release began around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday during a material transfer error, according to the Ohio EPA. Roughly 983 residents within a mile were ordered to evacuate, and a three-mile shelter-in-place order covered tens of thousands more, including some Michigan border communities. Hospitals treated about three dozen people exposed to the fumes, including a Lucas County sheriff’s deputy who was hospitalized. Wednesday afternoon the city reduced the zone to a half-mile and lifted the shelter-in-place; Thursday morning it shrank again to a quarter-mile. As of Thursday night, neither Toledo Public Schools nor Washington Local Schools had announced Friday’s school status.

Catch up on ToledoBuzz’s earlier coverage: the full incident catch-up, the quarter-mile zone update, and Jeep’s Toledo plant resuming operations.

For official updates, follow the City of Toledo and the U.S. EPA.

Photo: U.S. Army National Guard / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)