A massive fire erupted at the Chemtool Manufacturing Plant in Rockton, Illinois, on June 14, 2021, sending smoke and debris into surrounding neighborhoods and prompting widespread concerns about contamination, cleanup, and lingering effects on homes and businesses. This settlement targets Illinois residents and entities who owned or rented property within a three‑mile radius of the plant that day—covering both residential and nonresidential locations—and offers pro rata cash payments that vary based on factors like distance from the site, whether the claimant was an owner or tenant, and how many people lived at the property. The lawsuit was filed because plaintiffs alleged Holian Insulation Co. Inc., a contractor working at the facility, contributed to conditions that led to the fire and resulting property-related losses, including cleanup costs, diminished property value, and loss of use and enjoyment. Holian denied wrongdoing, but agreed to a $5.5 million settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of continued litigation; the case matters because it provides a structured, court-supervised compensation path for many people with similar claims, with deadlines to opt out (Sept. 11, 2025) or file (Oct. 13, 2025) and a final approval hearing set for Oct. 23, 2025. More broadly, this fits a familiar pattern in disaster and industrial-incident litigation: after a major event, affected communities often pursue class actions not just against the plant owner but also against contractors and other parties in the work chain, especially when the harm is geographically widespread and individual damages may be hard to litigate one-by-one. These cases sit alongside regulatory frameworks governing plant safety and emergency response—such as OSHA workplace safety rules and EPA air and hazardous-substance oversight—yet civil settlements like this one operate separately by focusing on compensating private property impacts, often requiring claim documentation and coordination with any insurance claims to prevent double recovery while still addressing uncovered losses