GORMAN : Evacuation Ends for 100 Residents

Residents of about a dozen houses evacuated after a potentially explosive chemical spill on California 138 near Gorman returned to their residences early Tuesday, authorities said.

The Los Angeles County Health Department declared the site in Neenach, where a chemical truck had rolled over and spilled part of its load on the highway, safe about 5:30 a.m., Sgt. Craig Klein of the California Highway Patrol said.

The tanker truck, which was carrying ammonium nitrate, blasting powder, diesel fuel and an oxidizing chemical, tipped over while coming out of a tight curve at 27011 Lancaster Road on Monday morning.

Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies, county firefighters and other officials cleared about 100 people out of an area within a quarter-mile of the spill because they feared the ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel could mix and explode. About 60 children were bused from nearby Neenach Elementary School to a Quartz Hill school.

Hazardous waste workers shoveled the spilled chemicals into drums, and the contents of the truck were taken to a dump, said Dan O’Neill, a firefighter with the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Task Force.