St. Lucas, Iowa — Emergency responders got a break from the Good Friday holiday in evacuating 41 residents after two anhydrous ammonia tanks came loose from the truck that was pulling them and ended up rolling down a hill in a parking lot. “There were very few people at home because of the holiday,” Fayette County Sheriff Marty Fisher told Green Markets. Fisher said the residents on the north edge of the community were evacuated along with the entire downtown. St. Lucas and Waucoma fire departments responded, along with emergency management. A shelter and an incident center were set up in a church southeast of the incident. Rescue workers found that one of the two 1,000 gallon tanks broke off a valve while tumbling down a hill, but responders managed to close it off before any significant amount of ammonia was released. The second tank was transferred to a safe location and contained. No injuries were reported, and entrance back into the city limits was allowed a short while later. The accident remains under investigation, but the sheriff’s office said the pin must have popped out back a quarter mile down the roadway and the weight of the tank snapped the safety chain.
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