A lorry carrying 23 tonnes of nitric acid overturned overnight into Friday at the slip road onto the A57 motorway in Krefeld-Zentrum, and according to the current status around ten tonnes of the highly corrosive chemical have leaked out. As the fire service announced on Friday, 6 November, the leak could not yet be stopped.
According to the fire service, the accident occurred at around 3 a.m. The driver was injured and taken to a clinic; according to t-online.de, the injuries are minor. Why the lorry overturned is still unclear according to the city’s civil protection agency. The vehicle is lying in a ditch and is difficult to reach; the acid is escaping through the filler cap.
200 emergency personnel and a special suction vehicle from Hagen
According to the fire service, around 200 emergency personnel are deployed, including the works fire brigade from the nearby Chempark, which specialises in hazardous goods accidents. They are trying to contain the spread of toxic vapours with water jets. In the morning the emergency personnel began pumping the remaining roughly 13 tonnes of acid into an identical lorry. According to the fire service, a special suction vehicle from Hagen was due to arrive at around 10 a.m. to take up the acid that had already leaked. A crane is then to right the lorry again. According to the fire service’s assessment, the recovery work is likely to drag on into the late afternoon.
Andreas Klos, head of the civil protection agency of the city of Krefeld, said in an Instagram video distributed by the fire service: “We have a toxic by-product here that has an extremely corrosive effect, and for that reason we also have a relatively large danger zone.” Because of the weather conditions the vapour cannot rise, said Klos according to WDR: “We will probably have an odour nuisance across the city area for the whole day.”
Cordon, sirens and closed schools
Within a radius of 1,000 metres around the accident site, the highest alert level “extreme danger” continues to apply, disseminated via the NINA warning app. During the night the sirens wailed in the city. The fire service appealed: “The population within the cordoned-off area is urgently requested to remain in buildings and to keep windows and doors closed. No one should enter or leave the area.” For the rest of the city area the fire service issued a warning mainly because of the odour nuisance; there is no danger there, a spokeswoman assured according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. A health risk in the danger zone cannot currently be ruled out, the city announced. According to the civil protection agency, however, all readings so far have been below the tolerance limit.
The A57 is closed in both directions between the Krefeld-Oppum and Krefeld-Gartenstadt junctions, according to WDR probably until midday. Several streets in the city of 230,000 inhabitants are also closed, and long traffic jams formed on the diversions. According to WDR, rail traffic between Krefeld and Duisburg is likely to be disrupted until midday; on the RE 42, RB 33 and RB 35 lines there are delays as well as partial and complete cancellations. The regional trains RE 10, RE 7 and RB 37 are running normally again. According to the Krefeld municipal utilities, bus and tram lines 042/043, 044, 047, 054, 059 and 927 are affected, partly with diversions or replacement services.
Four schools remain closed on Friday: the Franz-Stollwerck-Schule, the Sollbrüggenschule, the Gesamtschule Uerdingen and the Berufskolleg Uerdingen. The figures on the extent of nursery closures differ: rtl.de and t-online.de name two kindergartens (St. Gertrudis and Verberger Straße), while WDR reports five municipal and ten non-municipal kindergartens, with the exact number of affected facilities given differently. The municipal refuse collection is also cancelled because the vehicle fleet is located in the danger zone.
Nitric acid is one of industry’s most important basic chemicals, above all for fertilisers and explosives. If the highly corrosive acid is released uncontrolled, according to the authorities there is a risk of considerable health hazards – it can severely burn skin, eyes and respiratory tracts. How long the restrictions will last is initially unclear.
