Cocke County And Cosby Join Nearly A Dozen Firefighting Agencies For Situation On I-81

Those traveling southbound on Interstate 81 in White Pine on Friday ran into some delays near exit 4. This was due to a hazmat situation. About 30 agencies, including the Cocke County Fire Department, responded around 4:20pm Friday afternoon after a semi truck was carrying a chemical that was beginning to meet or exceed a certain temperature threshold. If the chemical had hit that threshold, it could have broken down and possibly caused a large explosion. Teams of firefighters began using water to cool down the chemical by spraying the side of the trailer, housing the chemicals.

One lane of I-81 southbound had to be closed between the rest area between MM 2 & 3 and Exit 4. That allowed fire trucks to use a shuttle system to haul water to the scene. Traffic was backed up to around MM 7 while this hazmat situation was being addressed. It took about three hours to bring the temp of the chemical down to an acceptable level and the semi was allowed to continue on. Besides Cocke County, some of the other responding fire departments were Cosby, White Pine, Baneberry, West Hamblen and South Hamblen, and Dandridge.