By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Hazardous materials caught fire in a truck traveling along Interstate 40 last night, causing some Forrest City residents, a hospital and two school campuses to be evacuated.
According to Fire Chief Dan Curtner, the incident began at about 11 p.m.
"There was a Roadway trucker coming in from Memphis headed west, he was pulling a tandem," said Curtner. "He was notified, from what we understand, by another truck driver that he had developed a leak out of the front trailer."
The driver pulled into the rest area near Forrest City and confirmed that there was material leaking out of his trailer.
"He called us, and he also notified a haz-mat team that is contracted with Roadway," Curtner said. "And by the time we got out there and the Roadway people got there, there was enough chemical reaction that it caught fire."
The front trailer was destroyed by the fire.
"It burned the first trailer pretty quick, and in doing that, it developed a lot of smoke and that type of stuff, so we evacuated an area a half mile around the rest area."
He said the fire department contacted Chemtrex, which he said is a nation-wide entity that fire departments can call when there is a haz-mat incident.
"What it does, you tell them who the shipper is and what kind of chemicals you think you have, and they put you in contact with those people, with the specialists."
According to Curtner, the specialists for Roadway "told us how to handle it, what to do with it, and we went from there."
People were allowed to return home this morning.
A Roadway representative, Rob Bulick, was at the scene this morning, and said he could not say much.
"There are a lot of different things, there were some hazardous materials in the front. But the fire department got it all put out, and there's not any risk at this point. It's a matter of trying to get everything cleaned up."
By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
Patients at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Forrest City were moved to a local church early today after a chemical spill near Forrest City forced the evacuation of everyone within a mile of the incident.
BMH-FC Public Relations Director Tiffany Billingsley said the hospital was notified about 1 a.m. that an evacuation may be necessary. About 5 a.m., according to Billingsley, the hospital was notified that patients and personnel would have to be moved.
The hospital implemented its emergency plan, and Billingsley said everything went as smoothly as could possibly be expected under the circumstances. "We have disaster plans in place just in case," she said. "We have several versions of what can happen (in our disaster drills), and we were prepared for this. However, I was really amazed at how well it went off. We have one lady who has been here 30 years, and never had a real one (disaster) happen like this."
After the initial notification, Billingsley said half of the hospital's personnel were sent to the church with equipment to prepare that location in case the entire hospital had to be evacuated. "After the call came to move, we kept some people here to help load the patients, and some were stationed at the church to receive them," she said.
All available hospital personnel were called in to work the disaster, and 22 patients were moved to the First Baptist Church on Rosser Street. Billingsley said the hospital was able to use the church's bus to transport the patients in stable condition, and the remainder were taken by ambulance to the church where hospital personnel were ready to help them.
"I am very, very proud of the way our personnel worked. We called in everyone on staff who could possibly be called in, and they showed up," Billingsley said. "None of our patients suffered any problems from the move. We had only one patient in our critical care unit, and he is fine as well."
As for the cooperation from the patients, Billingsley said they were very understanding. "Our patients understood the situation and were very good about being moved. Our staff was very good about staying calm and informing our patients as to what we had to do."
The church location was chosen as the transfer site because of its location. "We thought about the civic center, but we decided the church would be better because it is farther from the disaster site, and we did not want to have to move our patients twice," Billingsley said.
The make-shift hospital was also set up to handle new patients should they arrive. "We had all of our calls transferred to a number at the church, and we had people manning that. We also had one person stay behind at the hospital to make sure people coming there were directed to the right place," Billingsley said.
Patients were housed at the church until just before 7 a.m. when personnel learned they could begin the move back to the hospital. That move also went off without a hitch, she said.
"When it comes to safety for our patients, we take every precaution," Billingsley said.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
Several hotel guests along Holiday Drive in Forrest City got a rude awakening early this morning, compliments of the chemical fire.
Evacuation of one hotel and the alerting of another occurred about 6 a.m.
The Holiday Inn was called by police at 6:15 a.m. and asked to evacuate the guests for fear of chemical gases within a half-mile radius of the chemical spill that happened at the rest area on Interstate 40 west Wednesday night.
The guests were told, according to Holiday Inn this morning, to go to the Civic Center or to take Interstate 40 toward Little Rock.
The Hampton Inn was alerted and put on standby at about the same time, but did not evacuate.
The Indian Hills Apartments were also evacuated. Shirley Kirk, the manager, said the evacuation went smoothly. "Everybody's back now," she said.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Crowley's Ridge Technical Institute and East Arkansas Community College were among the sites which were evacuated last night during a hazardous material incident, but people were allowed to return to both campuses this morning.
Burl Lieblong, president of CRTI, said at first it looked as if there would be a disruption of graduation.
"This is our graduation day, and we were going to have our graduation at the Civic Center," said Lieblong. "It (the evacuation) had us off center a little bit, because everything we needed was on campus, and they didn't want us on campus."
He said this morning they got word that they could return to campus and things got back to normal.
"People are rehearsing for graduation, and we're grilling hamburgers for the students," said Lieblong.
Some confusion was caused at EACC, according to Jan Haven, vice president for Academic Affairs.
"We were asked by the local fire department to evacuate and cancel classes for the day, and were told it was going to be all day long and we didn't know if there were even going to be evening classes," Haven said.
"So we followed emergency procedures, and also announced that classes would be closed for the day," she continued. "Then at about 7:30 or 8 (a.m.), they said it was safe to go back in. So we started calling staff and faculty back in."
Eight o'clock classes were lost, but the campus started with 9:40 classes.
"Any time you have something like this, you are going to lose some students, who heard that we were going to cancel classes and got out of pocket," she said.
However, she emphasized that summer school is a more concentrated time, and each class needs to meet if possible.
"In summer school, time is important. We have five weeks to get courses in," she said. "You miss one day, and that's like missing about five during the regular semester. You can't afford to miss, and we've got about a week left. I hated the confusion, but we have to follow procedures."
EACC President Dr. Coy Grace was out of town, but Haven said they were in contact with him during the crisis.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Recent disaster drills contributed to the smooth evacuation of a one-mile area this morning as members of the Forrest City Police Department moved residents because of a chemical spill on Interstate 40.
According to FCPD Chief Clarence McNeary, this morning's evacuation began about 6 a.m. with officers going both door-to-door, as well as using loud speakers to notify residents of the danger.
"We utilized both door-to-door notification as well as neighborhood notification through our public address systems to let people know. The whole operation went extremely smoothly, and that thanks goes greatly to the citizens. Their cooperation was critical to our success this morning, as was the assistance of the fire department," McNeary said.
According to McNeary, recent disaster drills also aided officers. "We've had several disaster drills, and those helped get us ready because we had a pretty large area to evacuate this morning. We had two apartment complexes, a trailer park, the hospital, a few area motels and a portion of Washington Heights," said McNeary.
On-duty officers were used along with officers who were to begin their shifts at 7 a.m. Those officers were called in early. Residents were transported by van to area churches, the Forrest City Civic Center and an area school. According to McNeary, residents were allowed to return to their homes about an hour later.
There were several different chemical compounds involved in the hazardous materials incident occurring last night at the westbound Interstate 40 rest area near Forrest City. The chemicals as well as each one's potential health hazards are listed below.
* 2-Butanone, Methanol: A clear colorless liquid with a pungent odor which can cause permanent blindness when breathed, ingested or passed through the skin. Exposure to high concentrations can cause death. A coma resulting from massive exposures may last as long as two to four days. Exposure can damage the liver and cause headaches, cardiac depression, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, dizziness, a feeling of intoxication and irritations of the eyes, nose, mouth and throat.
* Propargyl Chloroformate: A liquid which is strongly irritating to eyes and mucous membranes. It is poisonous and may be fatal if inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through skin.
* Methyl Chloromethyl Ether: A colorless liquid with an irritating odor. The liquid causes severe irritation of eyes and skin as well as the nose. At high levels it can endanger life within four hours due to Pulmonary edema or pneumonia as well as an increased death rate from respiratory cancer among exposed victims. It is a flammable material and is ignited by heat, sparks or flames. Vapors may travel to a source of iginition and flash back.
* Boron TriBromide: A liquid which reacts violently with water and is highly toxic when inhaled.
* Vinyl Benzyl Chloride: A colorless to slightly yellow liquid with an irritating odor which is intensly irritating to skin, eyes and mucous membranes. It is highly toxic and may cause death or permanent injury after very short exposure to small quantities. It has also been listed as a direct-acting or primary carcinogen and large doses cause central nervous system depression.
* Hypochlorite Solution: A liquid generally used in bleaches which may cause irritation to the respiratory tract, coughing and sore throat. If ingested could cause nausea or vomiting and can severely irritate the eyes.
According to a report from the Forrest City Fire Department, there was one skid of batteries and Perchloric Acid involved in the spill.