WEATHERFORD, OK. Leaking tanker truck vomited dangerous gas ammonia outside the hotel overnight, filling its hallways with smoke and forcing hundreds of residents of the nearby small Oklahoma town to evacuate, authorities said Thursday. Several dozen people were treated in hospitals.
Officials lifted the stay-at-home order Thursday morning, hours after firefighters wearing gas masks went door to door in Weatherford, waking people up and telling them to leave because of an anhydrous ammonia leak.
An oilfield worker staying at the hotel where the truck was parked said he heard a “faint pop” Wednesday night and smelled it a few minutes later. He and his colleague left the room and hurried into the corridor and then into the elevator, which was filled with a pungent odor.
When they went outside, they saw their cars under a cloud of ammonia, said Michael Johnson of Nacogdoches, Texas. “The smell itself amazed me,” he said.
He ran but noticed his roommate wasn't with him and saw him run after their trucks. According to him, the policeman managed to save his colleague.
“His lips were purple and frozen,” Johnson said. “His eyes were bloodshot. His skin was all red.”
Johnson found one man tripping and gave him a shirt to shut his mouth. At one point, he looked up at the smoke and saw that they were surrounded, thinking, “We're going to die.”
Police said 34 people were treated at a local hospital and 11 patients were taken to Oklahoma City hospitals. Several victims remained in intensive care late Thursday, but most were in stable condition, police said in a statement. Dozens more were treated in emergency rooms.
Five officers who responded to the scene suffered chemical burns to their respiratory tract, according to police.
At least 500 to 600 people reported to shelters early Thursday, while others were ordered to remain in their homes for several hours. Some nursing homes were evacuated and schools were closed for the day.
The cause was a gasket leak from a tanker truck carrying 25,000 pounds (11,340 kg) of ammonia, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a written statement. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating.
Anhydrous ammonia is used as a fertilizer on corn and wheat farms. The colorless gas has a choking odor and can be fatal, especially in high concentrations, or cause breathing problems and burns to the skin and eyes.
Just last week anhydrous ammonia leak forced evacuation near Yazoo City, Mississippi, and two years ago, five people died in Illinois when a tanker truck spilled anhydrous ammonia after it was run off the road by a passing minivan.
The cleanup in Weatherford, a city of 12,000 located about 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City, could take days, the police chief said.
“Right now we have most of it diluted,” Orefice said, adding that authorities are working with environmental officials.
The Environmental Protection Agency said subsequent air monitoring did not detect any ammonia in the local residential area. pH levels in the local stream were within normal limits, and levels found in the soil were expected to “naturally neutralize within a short period.”
According to Orefis, the driver of the gasoline truck parked behind the Holiday Inn Express to rent a room there for the evening. The cause appears to have been a mechanical valve failure or a faulty seal, the police chief said.
Authorities said air quality was being monitored and that the tanker was no longer leaking. A number of agencies assisted, including hazmat crews and the Oklahoma National Guard.
Tricia Doucet called police for help when she learned the leak had occurred a few blocks from where her mother was caring for her bedridden 89-year-old grandmother. An ambulance was quickly dispatched to take her to safety.
Her grandmother, who is in hospice care, did not want to leave. “But this is my home,” she said.
Doucet, who used to work as an emergency physician and knew the dangers of anhydrous ammonia, remembers telling her grandmother, “This is the hardest part. I know this is your home, but you really have to go.”
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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire, and Broomfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland. Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and John Seaver in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
