RANDOLPH COUNTY, AR (KAIT) -
4:52 p.m. UPDATE: Randolph County Sheriff Gary Tribble told Region 8 News that the road south of the scene of this afternoon's truck fire is back open. A wrecker has been called to the scene for cleanup.
Catch LIVE reports coming up on Region 8 News at 5 and 6.
4:24 p.m. UPDATE: The fire is now out, according to Bo Graham, the Randolph County director of emergency management.
The tires, brakes and air bags caught fire, he said.
Graham confirmed there was no chemical release of the ammonium nitrate slurry on the trailer.
Arkansas State Police will be in charge of moving the trailer. They are contacting a wrecker service.
Officers are diverting traffic along the old highway.
4:20 p.m. UPDATE: Whitney Green, public information officer for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, tells Region 8 News there was no release of the chemical.
She said the truck tires were the only thing that caught fire.
Crews on the scene have not confirmed if the fire is out or not.
3:55 p.m. UPDATE: Randolph County Judge David Jansen confirms the truck is loaded with 44,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate.
The Arkansas State Police Bomb Squad is on the way to the scene and local crews are suiting up to fight the fire.
Meanwhile, they have evacuated a half-mile radius from the scene. Jansen said it is "not very populated," so he was not sure how many homes would be affected.
Jack Adams, manager of Cole's Grocery in Reyno, said that police are rerouting traffic onto the old highway. No one, he said, is allowed below Reyno.
He said that they have received no evacuation notices in town.
3:07 p.m. UPDATE: Randolph County Judge David Jansen says the fire is located 15 miles north of Pocahontas, between Biggers and Reyno.
Sheriff Gary Tribble is en route to the scene.
Crews are responding to a report of a semi truck loaded with explosives on fire.
The truck, according to a Randolph County sheriff’s deputy, is located in the 14000-block of Highway 67 North.
Motorists should avoid this area.
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REYNO, Ark. (AP) - A tractor-trailer rig carrying ammonia nitrate caught fire and burned in northeast Arkansas, forcing the evacuation of homes for about a half-mile around the fire near the town of Reyno.
Randolph County Office of Emergency Services Coordinator Bo Graham says the fire was put out Tuesday afternoon and there are no injuries.
The number of people forced to leave their homes or businesses was not immediately known.
Graham says the brakes on the trucks caught fire as the truck traveled on Highway 67.
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Tractor-trailer carrying ammonium nitrate catches fire on Arkansas highway
By Austin Cannon
October 25, 2016
No injuries were reported after a tractor-trailer carrying 44,000 gallons of ammonium nitrate caught fire Tuesday afternoon on U.S. Highway 67 near Reyno, said a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
Whitney Green said none of the chemical escaped the truck and that only the truck’s tires, rims and brake pads caught fire. The emergency management department’s local coordinator reported the fire about 3:30 p.m., she said.
Firefighters from the Biggers-Reyno and Pocahontas departments helped extinguish the flames, Green said.
Brad Smithee, an official with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said traffic had been blocked off a substantial distance away from the fire and that it was being diverted onto a county road west of the highway.
Ammonium nitrate is a component in some plant fertilizers. It’s normally a stable chemical, but when it’s exposed to fire, it can cause additional, uncontrollable fires or explosions, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
Fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate was stored at the West Fertilizer Company in West, Texas. Its plant exploded in April 2013, killing 15 people.
