A chemical fire at the EQ Industrial Services factory in Apex caused town officials to urge the evacuation of many Apex residents, including some faculty and students.

Stephen Federowicz, a junior in psychology, lives one mile from the factory and had to evacuate late Thursday night through early Friday morning.

“I was driving back from the game,” he said. “I didn’t get out of the game till 12:15 [a.m.] or so.”

Federowicz said he heard about the chemical fire on the radio and realized it was half a mile from his house. He said he wasn’t too worried about it at first.

“I didn’t know chemicals were involved,” he said.

After he started driving home, one of his friends told him officials were evacuating everyone within 10 miles of the fire, he said.

“I was a couple of miles out of town and I saw cop cars coming from all directions on the highway,” Federowicz said.

Italian lecturer Anna Rita Bonaduce-Dresler said she was also worried about the fire, but didn’t know what to expect, so she cancelled her classes Friday. As of Friday around noon, Bonaduce-Dresler and her family had not had to evacuate.

“We live in a street in Apex that is less than one mile away from the factory,” Bonaduce-Dresler said in an e-mail. “Our neighborhood has not been asked to evacuate, it has been recommended to stay at home [because of] the possible chlorine gas in the air.”

Some students also said they were worried about their families because though they might not live in Apex, their families do.

Rami Eltaraboulsi, a freshman in biochemistry, lives in Tucker Residence Hall, but his family’s house is in Apex.

Eltaraboulsi said he heard about the fire around 1 a.m. Friday. He then called his family.

“[My family] went to a hotel in Cary,” Eltaraboulsi said Friday. “They went to work today and they’re waiting to find out what’s going to happen.”

Eltaraboulsi said no one contacted his family to tell them to evacuate, although his family lives two miles from where the fire occurred.

“I called them and said, ‘get out of the house,'” he said.

Shawn Nee, a junior in computer science, is another student who was worried about family in Apex.

“My dad said he could see the light [from the blast],” Nee said.

According to Nee, a lot of his friends had to evacuate as well.

“I didn’t know about the debris,” he said. “I’m worried about that.”

Ayesha Ali, a senior in elementary education, evacuated with her family early Friday morning.

“We were watching the news and we saw this news update just that there was a chemical explosion in Apex,” Ali said.

Ali said the news reports she and her family heard all said residents within one mile had to evacuate and since they were within two miles of the explosion, everyone they called told them they were fine where they were. Ali said they continued to watch the news Thursday night from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.

“We just turned off our air right away and made sure all our windows were shut,” she said.

Ali said she and her family weren’t sure what to do because friends kept calling saying the Alis’ neighborhood, Haddon Hall, was on the list of neighborhoods that residents were supposed to evacuate from if they could.

The news reports, according to Ali, kept saying the police or fire department would call those who needed to evacuate, so she and her family went to sleep.

About 10 minutes after they went to sleep, Ali said she and her family received a call from the fire department saying they needed to evacuate right away. According to Ali, they took the basic necessities and went to her brother’s house in the same clothes they slept in.

“I knew it was something serious because people were calling us from all over,” Ali said. “We were able to be safe. It wasn’t like we were in serious harm or anything.”

Ali said the rain on Friday also helped clear away some of the chemicals in the air. She and her family returned home Friday night.

“A lot of people in Apex still can’t come home,” she said. “All the roads around my house are closed.”

Robbie Morrison, a junior in aerospace engineering, said he lives on the edge of Holly Springs and Apex but had not evacuated as of Friday afternoon.

“I was kind of waiting to see what would happen,” he said.

According to Morrison, a lot of roads were closed off and he wasn’t able to get to class on time.

“My wife got her work cancelled,” he said. “I wasn’t going to leave my cats.”

Morrison said he heard about it on the news and was sure he would have to be evacuated.

“The air smells funny,” he said.

According to Federowicz, he wasn’t able to see any of the damages the fire caused because the roads were all blocked off, but he watched it on the news and said it was catastrophic. He said he wasn’t sure what to expect, but expected to see people like “E.T.”

Federowicz said he was still in the same clothes from the night before, and ended up staying at a friend’s house until the ban was lifted.

Bonaduce-Dresler said she and her family were safe, but decided to stay together. Many schools in Apex were closed because of the fire and according to Bonaduce-Dresler, her son’s school, Saint Mary Magdalene, was one of them.

“My husband, my son and I have decided to stay all together today. We are safe and at home waiting for other news,” she said. “We really don’t know if there could be the possibility we have to evacuate as well.”

Residents in Apex could call a hotline every four hours to see whether or not it was safe to return home, according to Eltaraboulsi. He said he wasn’t sure whether or not his parents had returned to the hotel as of Friday afternoon.

“Right now, they don’t know if it’s safe to go back,” he said.

Eltaraboulsi said the fire ruined his weekend.

“I wanted to go home and do laundry,” he said. “It [also] ruined homecoming. I wanted to go to the Apex game [Friday night].”

Staff writers Matt Moore and Chris Sanchez contributed to this article.