At least seven people remained hospitalized Friday from injuries they suffered from an ammonia leak in a small Oklahoma town as authorities focused on how the potentially deadly gas began spewing out of the tanker truck carrying it.
The leak Wednesday night from a truck outside a hotel in Weatherford forced at least 500 to 600 people to evacuate their homes early Thursday while others were ordered to remain inside theirs for several hours. Firefighters went door-to-door to tell those who needed to leave.
The truck was carrying 25,000 pounds (11,340 kilograms) of ammonia, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has blamed a leaky gasket for the release of the gas. The company transporting the gas, Philadelphia-area-based supplier Airgas, said the leak had been contained.
“Our primary concern remains with all those impacted by this accident,” the company said in a statement Friday. “We are grateful for the coordinated efforts of first responders and emergency personnel to prioritize the safety and well-being of the community of Weatherford.”
Police said 34 people were treated at a local hospital and 11 patients were taken to Oklahoma City area hospitals. Dozens more received treatment at casualty centers.
Seven patients with injuries from the Weatherford incident remain at SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, according to health system spokesperson April Sandefer. Weatherford, with about 12,000 residents, is about 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City.
SSM Health did not release patient conditions, and authorities have not publicly identified those who were hospitalized. However, Weatherford Police Chief Angelo Orefice said two victims, a husband and wife, remained on ventilators Friday.
Orefice said six of his officers, one more than previously reported, also had chemical burns in their throats from exposure to the gas and were off duty, but, “They should be fine in a couple of days, according to the doctor.”
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said that three troopers, who mainly helped people evacuate, had symptoms of respiratory problems but not serious enough to require hospitalization.
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.
"Your eyes burn, your nose burns, everything,” said Brittanie Braman, whose home is close enough to the hotel that she can see it from her backyard.
Braman, 25, spent the night in a parking lot with her boyfriend crammed into their 2013 Ford Mustang with their three dogs — a Husky, a Pit bull and a Shar-Pei-mix __ and their cat in a carrier on her lap.
She said she was pulling chicken out of the oven Wednesday night when a firefighter in full gear knocked on the door and told her she needed to evacuate. The smell was overwhelming by the time she and her boyfriend got leashes on their three dogs and loaded their pets into their car.
“I had to put my arm over my mouth because it was just straight ammonia," she said.
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.
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)
The scene of an ammonia spill at the Holiday Inn Express in Weatherford, Okla. on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado comes to the White House on Thursday to discuss her country's future with President Donald Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signaled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela and sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.
The White House says Machado sought the face-to-face meeting with Trump without setting expectations for what would occur. Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.
Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate following her lunch with Trump, who has called her “a nice woman” while indicating they might not touch on major issues in their talks Thursday.
Her Washington swing began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
The White House says Venezuela has been fully cooperating with the Trump administration since Maduro’s ouster.
Rodríguez, the acting president, herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move thought to have been made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump wanted to win himself. She has since thanked Trump. Her offer to share the peace prize with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
