A loaded tractor-trailer caught fire early this morning on Interstate 85 in Braselton and spilled almost 300 gallons of corrosive material onto the shoulder of an on-ramp in Barrow County.
No one was injured, but the 3:15 a.m. incident led to the closure of the interstate both north and south. The northbound lanes reopened at 6 a.m. One southbound lane opened around 6:30 a.m. All lanes, as well as the southbound ramp of Exit 126, had reopened by 8 a.m.
An Atlanta cleanup crew was working on the ramp's shoulder at mid morning, according to Lt. Scott Dakin of Barrow County Emergency Services.
“We had a tractor-trailer that had mechanical failure, and two rear wheels caught on fire,” said Dakin. “This spread up into the trailer portion of the truck. It was carrying freight that was hazardous materials that got impinged by the fire.”
Dakin said the Old Dominion Freight Line truck caught fire while traveling down the interstate and pulled over onto the shoulder of the southbound ramp of the exit for Highway 211.
The hazardous material is a corrosive substance but posed no danger to emergency workers, because it is not an inhalant, and emergency workers managed to contain it to the shoulder of the on-ramp, Dakin said.
Responding to the incident from Barrow County were Engine 5, Med Unit 5, Battalion 1 and Dakin.
Gwinnett County emergency personnel also responded to the incident because of its proximity to the county line, Dakin said.
"When Gwinnett got on the scene and saw it was a hazardous material, they called their hazmat unit," he said, explaining that the truck was marked as carrying hazardous materials.
Though some Atlanta media outlets are reporting that Gwinnett's hazmat unit was called into service because Barrow County doesn't have hazmat suits, that is not true, Dakin said.
Barrow's hazmat suits are on its hazmat trailer, which was not called to the scene, since Gwinnett's unit responded, he said.
