Hazmat team responds after truck driver hauling ammonium nitrate takes wrong turn
A semi truck hauling hazardous materials overturned after the driver made a wrong turn over the weekend in Morgan County, Missouri.
At 7 p.m. on July 12, the Gravois Fire Protection District (GFPD) was dispatched for a reported overturned semi truck on Lake Trail Lane in Gravois Mills, Missouri.
The truck driver met firefighters at a staging area and said that “he had inadvertently traveled onto Lake Trail Lane after making a wrong turn.”
The truck driver also advised that the truck was hauling 30,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, but said that he had not observed any leaks from the trailer.
The truck driver was not injured.
The Cole County Hazmat Team was called in and nearby residents were asked to evacuate their homes.
A thermal imaging drone was deployed, but there was no evidence of hazmat leakage.
An in-person evaluation of the truck and trailer confirmed there was no active product release.
Working with the trucking company, a towing company, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the GFPD assisted in barricading and securing the roadway overnight so that the product could be transferred to another trailer in the morning and the overturned vehicle could be recovered.
“Fortunately, the incident occurred on a lightly traveled roadway with few nearby residences, minimizing the impact on the public while providing emergency personnel with adequate space to safely manage the incident and complete recovery operations,” GFPD said.
GFPD thanked the following agencies for assisting in the response:
- Cole County Hazardous Materials Team
- Missouri Department of Natural Resources
- Missouri State Highway Patrol
- CHEMTREC
- Morgan County 911
- Morgan County Sheriffs Department
- Morgan County Emergency Management Agency
- Camden County Emergency Management Agency
- Sunrise Beach Fire Protection District
- Versailles Rural Fire Protection District
- Lake West Ambulance