Allan Dover, of the Lauderdale County Fire Commission, stood on Hwy. 19 North Thursday morning peering at an 18-wheeler lying on its side and said, “This must be hazardous material day in Lauderdale County.”

Emergency personnel, in addition to working this scene where a big rig rolled over off the southbound lane of Hwy. 19 north of Collinsville, were also wrapping up a propane truck accident on Lizzy Road. Fortunately, no one was injured in the two mishaps. Both happened shortly before 8 a.m.

“It’s been a busy morning,” said Lauderdale County Emergency Management Agency Director David Sharp.

The 18-wheeler out of El Paso, Texas, reportedly lost control at about 7:50 a.m. Thursday two miles north of Collinsville. When emergency responders from Suqualena, Bailey, Martin and Collinsville volunteer fire departments arrived on the scene they discovered the tank had a dual compartment configuration enabling it to carry two kinds of liquid product at the same time. One of the compartments, holding propyl acetate, was leaking.

A two-mile section of the highway was immediately closed off. Volunteer firemen diverted traffic from Firetower Road north of the site to Wildcat Road on the southern end of the crash site. In the meantime, Sharp was busily lining up assets to first off load the liquids, clean up the spill and then remove the damaged big rig in order to open the roadway.

“This operation will take several hours to complete,” said Sharp. “These two products are highly flammable.”

Propyl acetate is commonly used as a flavoring additive but it is also listed as highly flammable and an explosion hazard in concentrated form. Butanol, at 85 strength, can be run in vehicles much like gasoline. It has the ability to generate more power than ethanol but not quite that of gasoline so it is a very volatile liquid as well.

“We’ve backed all the vehicles up so there is a very small chance of ignition,” said Sharp. “The way the wind is blowing today, the vapors are scattered very quickly so that helps.”

No residents in the area had to be evacuated as a result of the accident.

Hazardous spill experts from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality were enroute to the location to oversee the clean up operations.