Julian Stratenschulte / AFP - Getty Images

Firefighters in protective clothes on the grounds of Kraft Foods in Bad Fallingbostel, northern Germany, after a chemical accident on Oct. 16.

Ingo Wagner / EPA

Firemen try to repel toxic gases with water at a plant of Kraft Foods in Bad Fallingbostel, northern Germany, in the early morning of Oct. 16.

Julian Stratenschulte / EPA

An evacuated resident waits in the Heidmarkhalle after a chemical accident at a Kraft Foods plant in Bad Fallingbostel, Germany, Oct. 16.

The emergency alarm was sounded when a tank of sodium hydroxide solution was by mistake filled with nitric acid, producing a poisonous cloud of nitrous gases considered extremely harmful if they come into contact with skin or are inhaled. At least 1400 people were evacuated from their homes Monday night after the accident at the factory in the town of Bad Fallingbostel in Lower Saxony.