Authorities shut down US 378 near Shaw Air Force Base in both directions Friday morning after a trailer overturned and leaked chemicals.
Sumter County Fire Dept. Chief Bud Ivey said the highway was expected to reopen between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m.
The department got a call around 5:45 a.m. that a trailer full of chemicals overturned, and two of the containers ruptured, Ivey said.
About 50 to 70 gallons of a corrosive chemical were released from the containers before fire department crews and a Lexington County hazardous materials team stopped the leak.
“It’s pretty well safe now,” Ivey said.
The chemical would have become more hazardous had it mixed with water, but that did not happen, he said.
It wasn’t clear how the trailer overturned. It was not attached to a tractor, Ivey said.
Kelly Davis
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