Tulsa Fire Blocks Traffic To Keystone Expressway Due To Chemical Spill

The ramp from 65th West Avenue onto the Keystone Expressway is still closed for now.

The ramp was closed so crews could work to clean up the mess from two tanker trucks that began leaking corrosive material.

Tulsa firefighters say a truck driver did the right thing and pulled off of the Keystone Expressway immediately after noticing one of his valves was leaking.

They say the truck was carrying ferric chloride, which is corrosive.

“The driver pulled over in the best spot he could have,” said Deputy Chief Andy Teeter of the Tulsa Fire Department.  “Had the second one not started leaking, it would’ve been a whole lot better deal.”

Officials say a second truck, which was dispatched to unload the first, started leaking.

Fire crews say the equipment just wasn’t compatible with the corrosive.

They say this happened at a time when all hazmat crews were already busy with other calls around town.  They had to get creative in order to contain the leak while they waited.

Crews requested a backhoe to come to the scene to dig a ditch to prevent the ferric chloride from running into a nearby creek and possibly into a neighborhood.

“We’ve got one of our city Bobcats from the fire department digging, basically, a pond to contain this stuff until the company can get here and get it offloaded,” said Teeter.

The main job for the fire crews was to make sure the corrosive material didn’t get into the storm drains and pollute the water.

They say it was contained and they didn’t have to evacuate any of the surrounding homes.

“Probably having a big second hazmat situation at the time of the first is not ideal, but at least we can handle it with some rudimentary tools and some heavy equipment,” stated Teeter.