Ammonia gas leak forces residents of Ind. town to flee homes for several hours

Ammonia leak forces Ind. residents to flee homes

TAYLORSVILLE, Ind. — A dangerous ammonia gas leak led to the evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes and sent at least three people to hospitals early Tuesday, after authorities say thieves tried to steal the chemical from a farm to likely use it to make methamphetamine.

A passer-by notified authorities about the gas cloud and odor south of Taylorsville at about 2:30 a.m., said Lt. Rob Kittle of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department. Taylorsville is 35 miles south of Indianapolis.

Authorities evacuated hundreds of people from all or parts of at least three subdivisions, and shut down part of U.S. 31 near the farm where the leak occurred for four hours, authorities said.

Ambulances took at least three people to a Columbus hospital after they were overcome by fumes, said county 911 director Ed Reuter, and several more went to the hospital on their own volition. One motorist who drive through the cloud ended up in a ditch and sought medical attention, authorities said.

“I don’t think there was anything that was life-threatening in this whole event,” Reuter said.

The cloud drifted south toward the nearby city of Columbus, and pre-dawn darkness and fog made it difficult to determine whether it was dissipating, Kittle said. Three nearby schools delayed opening for two hours as a precaution.

A deputy in the area arrested one woman, and investigators were searching for two other people possibly involved in the theft, he said.

Ashlie Walsh, 26, of Columbus, was being held on $25,000 bond in Bartholomew County Jail on preliminary charges of assisting a criminal and theft. Records at the jail did not indicate whether she had an attorney.

Bartholomew County Sheriff Mark Gorbett said investigators believe the suspects likely were exposed to the chemical as they siphoned it from a large tanker into a smaller tank.

“It’s a definite possibility that they were injured,” he said.

Anhydrous ammonia, a key ingredient in making illicit methamphetamine, is used as a refrigerant and a fertilizer. Exposure to the vapors can burn the tissues of the eyes and throat and cause breathing difficulty, and online safety guides say in high concentrations the chemical can cause lung damage.

In extreme cases, exposure to ammonia can be fatal, Gorbett said.

Cliff Harp, 76, said the odor was powerful when he first left his home at the Harvest Meadows Subdivision.

“The air was saturated with it,” said Harp, who took the opportunity to drive to Columbus for an early breakfast.

A neighbor of Harp’s held a towel over his mouth and knocked on doors about 4 a.m. to alert neighbors.

Vickie Yerges, 56, immediately noticed the smell and put a towel over her mouth, too, to keep from breathing in the fumes.

“It was a little scary,” Yerges said.

About 60 evacuees went to the Edinburgh Separate Baptist Church, north of the ammonia cloud, church deacon Brian Simmons told The Republic newspaper of Columbus.