Morehead City closed after explosive spill

Morehead City closed after explosive spill       The Port of Morehead City was closed Tuesday morning after nine drums of the explosive PETN were damaged during cargo handing operations at the port.
      Drums of the chemical were damaged by a forklift as they were being loaded on a truck at the port, said Karen Fox, a spokesman for the North Carolina Port Authority.
      The port authority said there had been no reported injuries or damage to the environment. Port of Morehead City routinely handles explosive materials.
      Scott Hembrook, a public affairs officer at the Coast Guard’s office in Atlantic Beach, N.C., said three to five gallons of the chemical pentaerythritol tetranitrate were spilled and emergency personnel, including members of the Morehead City Fire Department, were cleaning up the spill and separating the damaged from the undamaged cargo.
      He said the work was slow-going because of the need to keep the chemical wet to keep it from igniting.
      PETN is a chemical commonly used in industrial explosives as well as ordinance. The chemicals had arrived on the ship the Lehmann Forester from Spain and bound for a manufacturing plant of the industrial explosives maker Maxam North America.