Hazardous material removed that caused evacuations in busy Cayce neighborhood
It was Thursday morning and Audralyn Galloway’s 11-year-old son had already left for school when someone starting banging on the front door of her Cayce home.
They told her that she and her family needed to evacuate immediately. She grabbed her 4-year-old daughter and two chihuahuas and fled down the street to William J. Cayce Memorial Park.
Galloway and her family were among the Cayce residents who were forced to flee their homes Thursday morning following a suspected chemical leak from a tanker parked behind an environmental services facility in a busy residential and commercial neighborhood. City officials later said 80 homes in the area were evacuated during the incident, where 25 Cayce police officers and eight firefighters went door-to-door to alert residents of the danger.
Chemicals accidentally mixed with cooking oil at the Crystal Clean environmental services facility located at 627 Poplar Street, Cayce, resulted in the tanker overhearing, said a spokesperson for city of Cayce. Firefighters and first responders rushed to the facility and authorities called for the evacuation of homes and businesses in a quarter-mile radius.
At a press conference at noon, Cayce Fire Chief Steven Bullard said that they had removed the hazardous material and residents would likely be given the clear to go home sometime in the afternoon. The evacuation order was lifted around 1 p.m.
City Manager Michael Conley expressed appreciation for the residents and business owners who reacted quickly to the danger and evacuated the area for most of the morning. “Their safety is our number one priority,” Conley said.
What happened?
Thursday morning’s chaos began at 6:52 a.m. when first responders were called to Crystal Clean, a national company that provides environmental services, including wastewater management, filtration solutions and used oil disposal. Vapor had been seen rising from a tanker parked outside the business. The vehicle was growing warm to the touch and was thought to be overheating, said Cayce spokesperson Ashley Hunter.
According to Hunter, the chemicals potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide had accidentally been mixed with cooking oil. Potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide are both highly caustic chemicals that can be used as cleaner.
When first responders arrived, the tanker was still “off-gassing” the chemical mixture inside, leading to the call for an evacuation, which was sent out to residents on Lexington County’s Code Red system, Hunter said.
“Our biggest fear initially was the threat of an explosion,” said Fire Chief Steven Bullard.
The truck slowly cooled down and by 11:30 a.m., a third-party processor was removing the mixture from the tanker to safely transport it away, Bullard said. The 4,000-gallon tank was found to contain about 1,900 gallons of the fluid. Officials said it wasn’t immediately clear what the tanker was doing there that morning or how the dangerous mix came together, although the site is host to a business that provides industrial waste services.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, Hunter said. Bullard said the crew and business owner were helpful in identifying the mixture and in getting the site secured.
As of noon, a Cayce police truck was still blocking traffic on Naples Avenue at the intersection with State Street. Galloway sat by her car nearby as her daughter played in the park. She had meant to go back to her house to remove her two larger dogs as well, but by then the street was already blocked.
But she was appreciative of the quick response of the city to the threat unfolding just yards from her family home that morning.
“I’m glad they did,” Galloway said of the officer who came banging on her door. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
This is a breaking news story. Check back here for updates.
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 9:08 AM.
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