Officials say the cleanup of a chemical spill caused by a burning semi truck in Tennessee will take days.
The truck hauling organic peroxide and sodium hydroxide caught fire on Thursday night, August 3rd in a parking lot on McBrien Road near the RAVE theater just off of I-24 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
According to News Channel 9, when burned, organic peroxide and sodium hydroxide can cause skin and respiratory irritation, so businesses and homes within a half mile of the site were evacuated as officials responded to the scene on Thursday night.
A crash truck from the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport was able to use a piercing nozzle to puncture the burning trailer with the chemicals inside in order to quench the fire, and the Tennessee Department of Transportation trucked in 80 tons of dirt to stop any chemical runoff.
No injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire is not clear. The evacuation notice was lifted as of 5 a.m. on Friday morning, and Interstate 24 has been reopened. South Terrace between McBrien Road and Spring Creek Road, and the Eastgate shopping center will remain closed indefinitely as the cleanup of the incident continues. Officials say that cleanup will likely last several days.
