Residents of a southwest Douglas County neighborhood returned to their homes Friday after a tractor-trailer hauling “hazardous materials” overturned, prompting an hours-long evacuation of their rural road.
Officials said the tanker was carrying 20,000 pounds of “blasting booster and blasting agents,” including ammonium nitrate mixed with an emulsifier and blasting caps, when it tipped over on Wilson Road between Ga. 5 and Tyree Road around 7 a.m. Authorities asked residents of about 50 homes within a half-mile radius of that area to “evacuate immediately for safety” but allowed people to come back at about 11 a.m.
Officials said the overturned vehicle was safely removed.
“It was a very close call,” Douglas fire Chief Miles Allen said. ”Normally, something like this would be a little bit more violent. But fortunately, we were pretty blessed."
The evacuated 1-mile stretch of Wilson Road is lined by homes separated by large fields and is south of the Fairplay and McWhorter communities.
According to the Georgia State Patrol, the truck’s right-side tires went onto a soft shoulder, and the driver overcorrected, causing the tanker to tip onto its passenger side. The driver was injured but declined medical treatment.
None of the chemicals within the tank actually spilled, Allen said, but “because of the nature of the material that’s in the vehicle, it posed a medium threat to the area — an explosive threat."
Blasting caps are small explosive devices that are used to detonate a larger explosive.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
“We just wanted to get the blasting caps off the vehicle, period, before we did anything. So it took us a minute because we wanted to make sure that everything was safe,” Allen said.
The truck belongs to Dyno Nobel, a company specializing in commercial explosives that traces its origins to Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prizes, according to its website. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Officials have not said what the truck’s materials were going to be used for, where the truck was going or why it was on such a small road. The chemicals have a wide range of uses, from fertilizer production to explosives.
The nearby Dog River Library opened as a temporary evacuation location, though the building was only lightly used by those seeking shelter.
County librarian Lindy Moore, who oversees the library system, said there are not many homes within the evacuation zone because it’s a small residential street.
“That was a big truck for a little street,” she said.
Her team opened the library, the closest government building, for evacuees at 7:45 a.m., about two hours before the facility normally opens.
“We’ve only had one person that was evacuated come into the building,” Moore said.
— Staff writer Taylor Croft contributed to this article.
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