Ammonia gas leak from a tanker truck in Oklahoma sickens dozens and forces evacuations

WEATHERFORD, Okla. (AP) — A leaking tanker truck spewed dangerous ammonia gas outside a hotel overnight, filling its hallways with fumes and forcing hundreds of nearby residents of a small Oklahoma city to evacuate, authorities said Thursday. Several dozen people were treated at hospitals.

Officials lifted a shelter-in-place order Thursday morning, hours after firefighters wearing gas masks went door to door in Weatherford, waking people up and telling them to leave because of the anhydrous ammonia leak.

An oil field worker staying at the hotel where the truck had been parked said he heard a “faint pop” Wednesday night and noticed a smell minutes later. He and a coworker left their room and hustled into a hallway and then an elevator filling up with a pungent odor.

Once outside, they saw their vehicles underneath a cloud of ammonia, said Michael Johnson, of Nacogdoches, Texas. "The smell itself punched me,” he said.

He took off running, but noticed his roommate wasn’t with him and saw that he had run for their trucks. He said a police officer managed to save his coworker.

“His lips were purple and frozen shut,” Johnson said. “His eyes were bloodshot red. His skin was all red.”

Johnson found one person stumbling and gave him a shirt to put over his mouth. At one point, he looked at the smoke and saw they were surrounded, thinking “We’re going to die.”

Police said 34 people were treated at a local hospital and 11 patients were taken to Oklahoma City area hospitals. Several victims remained in intensive care late Thursday, but the majority were in stable condition, police said in a statement. Dozens more received treatment at casualty centers.

Five responding officers sustained chemical burns to their airways, police said.

At least 500 to 600 people went to a shelter early Thursday while others were ordered to remain inside their homes for several hours. Some nursing homes were evacuated, and schools were closed for the day.

A leaking gasket from a tanker truck carrying 25,000 pounds (11,340 kilograms) of ammonia was responsible, the EPA said in a written statement. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating.

Anhydrous ammonia is used as a farm fertilizer to help corn and wheat grow. The colorless gas has a suffocating odor and can be deadly, especially at high concentrations, or cause breathing problems and burns to the skin and eyes.

Just last week, an anhydrous ammonia leak forced evacuations near Yazoo City, Mississippi, and two years ago, five people died in Illinois when a tanker truck spilled anhydrous ammonia after it was forced off a road by a passing minivan.

The cleanup in Weatherford — a city of 12,000 people about 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City — could take several days, the police chief said.

“We pretty much got a lot of this stuff diluted right now,” Orefice said, adding that authorities were working with environmental officials.

The EPA said subsequent air monitoring did not detect any ammonia in the local residential area. The levels of pH in the local creek were within normal and the levels detected in the soil were expected to “naturally neutralize over a short period.”

The driver of the truck carrying the gas had parked behind a Holiday Inn Express to get a room there for the evening, Orefice said. The cause seemed to be a mechanical failure on a valve or a faulty seal, the police chief said.

Authorities said the air quality was being monitored and that the tanker truck was no longer leaking. A number of agencies were assisting, including hazmat crews and the Oklahoma National Guard.

Trisha Doucet called police for help when she learned the leak was blocks away from where her mother was caring for her bed-bound 89-year-old grandmother. An ambulance was quickly dispatched to get her to safety.

Her grandmother, who is on hospice, was reluctant to leave. “But this is my house,” she said.

Doucet, who used to work as an EMT and knew the dangers of anhydrous ammonia, recalled telling her grandmother, “That’s the hardest part. I know it’s your house, but you really have to go.”

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire, and Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland. Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Michael Johnson of Nacogdoches, Texas gathers his belongings from the Holiday Inn Express on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025 after he was able to return due to evacuation orders following an ammonia gas leak at the hotel in Weatherford, Okla. the previous night. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Fire crews bring down guest belongings from their hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express after the evacuation and shelter in place was lifted after a tanker truck had an ammonia gas leak in Weatherford, Okla. on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

First responders check the Holiday Inn Express in Weatherford, Okla. on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025 where an ammonia gas leak in the parking lot the previous night warranted evacuation. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Crews begin checking the Airgas tanker on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025 that leaked in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express in Weatherford, Okla. the previous night and caused mandatory evacuations. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Business owners and first responders gather in a shopping center parking lot near the scene of an ammonia spill in Weatherford, Okla. after the shelter in place was lifted on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

An Airgas semi truck that leaked ammonia sits behind the Holiday Inn Express in Weatherford, Okla. on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Business owners and first responders gather in a shopping center parking lot near the scene of an ammonia spill in Weatherford, Okla. after the shelter in place was lifted on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

The scene of an ammonia spill at the Holiday Inn Express in Weatherford, Okla. on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

The scene of an ammonia spill at the Holiday Inn Express in Weatherford, Okla. on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Launch preparations have begun for the Artemis II mission, NASA’s planned lunar fly-around by four astronauts that will be the first moon trip in 53 years.

Tensions were high as hydrogen fuel started flowing into the rocket hours ahead of the planned launch. Dangerous hydrogen leaks erupted during a countdown test earlier this year, forcing a lengthy flight delay.

The launch team needs to load more than 700,000 gallons of fuel (2.6 million liters) into the 32-story Space Launch System rocket on the pad before the Artemis II crew can board.

The 32-story Space Launch System rocket is poised to blast off Wednesday evening with a two-hour launch window beginning at 6:24 p.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Artemis astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will be on board. They’ll hurtle several thousand miles beyond the moon, hang a U-turn and then come straight back. No circling around the moon, no stopping for a moonwalk — just a quick out-and-back lasting less than 10 days. NASA promises more boot prints in the gray lunar dust, but not before a couple practice missions.

Unlike the Apollo missions that sent astronauts to the moonfrom 1968 through 1972, Artemis’ debut crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian citizen.

Artemis II is the opening shot of NASA’s grand plans for a permanent moon base. The space program is aiming for a moon landing near the lunar south pole in 2028.

The Latest:

The wind is picking up at Cape Canaveral, more clouds are appearing and rain is expected in about two hours. But there is no lightning threat, NASA says, and there’s still an 80% chance the weather will be good enough to launch.

L-minus tracks the overall time to liftoff, counting down the days, hours and minutes away before the planned blastoff. It doesn’t include built-in holds, or pauses — that’s T-minus time.

The T-minus countdown in the final 10 minutes is where nerves tense up and hearts start pounding. Automated software kicks off a series of highly choreographed milestones. During this period, the clock can be stopped if a problem is spotted and restarted if it’s fixed in time.

T-0 is the moment of liftoff — zero — when the boosters ignite and the rocket begins its journey.

NASA has a narrow time frame each month to fly to the moon.

The Earth and moon must be aligned just so to achieve the proper trajectory for the mission. In any given month, there’s only about a week when Artemis II astronauts can lift off.

The Orion capsule needs to get a check of its life-support and other systems in near-Earth orbit. If that goes well, Orion will fire its main engine to hurtle toward the moon, taking advantage of the moon and Earth’s gravity to get there and back in a slingshot maneuver that requires little if any fuel.

Orion also needs sunlight for power and can’t be in darkness for more than 90 minutes at a time. Plus NASA wants to minimize heating during reentry at flight’s end.

The latest launch window runs through April 6. The next opportunity opens on April 30.

The hydrogen tank of the rocket’s core stage is 100% filled. NASA said no significant leaks have been observed so far in fueling. It was hydrogen leaks that prevented the rocket from flying in February.

The alarm clocks just went off in Kennedy Space Center’s crew quarters.

That means it’s rise and shine for the three Americans and one Canadian who are about to become the first lunar visitors in more than 53 years.

They have a long day ahead of them, whether they launch or not.

After breakfast, they’ll start suiting up. NASA’s launch window opens at 6:24 p.m. and lasts a full two hours.

Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson is wearing green as are many of the controllers alongside her in the firing room.

Green represents “go” for NASA, a color symbolizing good luck.

The team is monitoring the fueling of the 322-foot moon rocket, set to blast off Wednesday evening.

A plush toy named Rise will ride with the Artemis II astronauts around the moon, carrying the names of more than 5.6 million people.

Rise is what’s known as a zero gravity indicator, which gives the astronauts a visual cue of when they reach space.

The design was inspired by the iconic “Earthrise” photo during Apollo 8, showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968.

Rise was selected from more than 2,600 contest submissions. It was designed by Lucas Ye of California.

Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew tucked a small memory card into Rise before the toy was loaded into the Orion capsule. The card bears the names of all those who signed up with NASA to vicariously tag along on the nearly 10-day journey.

“Zipping that little pocket on the bottom of Rise was kind of the moment that put it all together for me,” Wiseman said. “We are going for all and by all. It’s time to fly.”

NASA is fueling the new rocket that will send four astronauts to the moon.

Launch teams have begun pumping more than 700,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the Space Launch System rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It’s the latest milestone in the two-day countdown that kicked off on Monday when launch controllers reported to duty.

It will take at least four hours to fully load the rocket before astronauts climb aboard for humanity’s first flight to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The two-hour launch window opens at 6:24 p.m. EDT.

▶ Read more about Apollo vs. Artemis

The Americans who blazed the trail to the moon more than half a century ago were white men chosen for their military test pilot experience.

The Artemis II crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian, products of a more diversified astronaut corps.

▶ Read more about Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen and Reid Wiseman

NASA's Artermis II moon rocket sits on Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center hours ahead of planned liftoff Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NASA's Artermis II moon rocket sits on Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center hours ahead of a planned launch attempt Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Photographers set up remote cameras near NASA's Artermis II moon rocket on Launch Pad 39-B just before sunrise at the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)