Fertilizer Spill Prompts Hazmat Response in Las Vegas

Authorities have cordoned off an area of businesses and stores and closed a busy freeway interchange after a crash spilled a powdered hazardous material east of downtown Las Vegas.

Firefighters and cleanup crews were at the scene, and city spokesman Jace Radke said Feb. 25, 2009, that he had no word of injuries in the crash and the spill of ammonium nitrate at Charleston and Lamb boulevards.

U.S. 95 freeway ramps at Charleston Boulevard are shut down, and police and firefighters have blocked a wide area around the spill.

The chemical can be used as a fertilizer and an explosive. It was a component of the April 19, 1995, federal building bomb in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.

Authorities say a flatbed truck hauling another truck tipped on its side just before 5:45 a.m. at the intersection in front of a McDonald’s restaurant.