Overturned Truck Spills 300 Gallons of Hydrogen Peroxide, Shuts Down Moreland Ave

An overturned tractor-trailer carrying 300 gallons of hydrogen peroxide shut down a stretch of Moreland Avenue in DeKalb County Thursday morning, forcing police to close ramps to Interstate 285 while fire crews raced to contain a chemical leak that grew worse as the morning wore on. The crash happened around 9:20 a.m. at Moreland Avenue and Thurman Drive, near a Red Roof Inn and a gas station in the area, with no reported injuries.

DeKalb County Police shut down Moreland Avenue between Henrico Road and E. Conley Road, including all exit ramps to I-285, as emergency crews worked to clean up the spill, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Georgia Department of Transportation traffic cameras showed multiple DeKalb County Fire Rescue vehicles surrounding the overturned truck near the offramp, as reported by 11Alive. As Atlanta News First reported, what began as a small leak grew larger, and the hydrogen peroxide started to corrode other materials being transported on the truck.

Evacuation Zone Widens as Crews Contain the Chemical

Dekalb Fire officials said fire crews expanded the evacuation area as a precaution while a specialized cleanup crew was dispatched to the scene, per the same account. The extent of the evacuation remains unknown. Fire crews later reported that the leak had been contained, according to Dekalb Fire officials.

Hydrogen peroxide solutions are classified by the U.S. Department of Transportation as Class 5.1 oxidizers and Class 8 corrosives, meaning they can rapidly release oxygen, accelerate fires, and corrode metal or organic materials on contact, per federal regulations from the USDOT Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. That dual hazard designation explains why the spill required more than a routine cleanup and why crews treated the corroding cargo as an evolving threat rather than a contained mess.

A Freight Corridor With a History of Hazmat Trouble

DeKalb County Fire Rescue, which operates as an ISO Class 2 department with 26 stations and a dedicated Hazardous Materials unit equipped with chemical transfer pumps and containment gear, serves more than 750,000 residents across unincorporated DeKalb and 11 municipalities, according to DeKalb County Government records. Moreland Avenue, designated US 23 and State Route 42, functions as a regional freight truck route linking industrial hubs in south DeKalb directly to Interstate 285 and Interstate 20, per the Atlanta Regional Commission, which helps explain why heavy trucks hauling hazardous cargo regularly pass through this stretch.

This is not the first time a chemical spill has struck the same general area. In April 2024, a spill of 300 to 500 gallons of organic peroxide at a FedEx facility on nearby Thurman Road injured a worker and forced a site evacuation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported at the time. Organic peroxides carry similar burn and reactivity hazards to hydrogen peroxide, underscoring a pattern of dangerous chemical shipments moving through this south DeKalb corridor.

A Second Road Closure Compounded Morning Gridlock

The crash added to an already rough morning for south DeKalb drivers. Police were separately responding to a hit-and-run crash on nearby Bouldercrest Road that knocked out power to 60 customers after a driver struck a utility pole, according to WSB-TV. Police had originally been directing drivers bypassing that closure toward Moreland Avenue before the semi-truck rollover shut that route down too, compounding gridlock across the area's primary arterial routes.

The corridor has also seen multi-agency hazmat response before. In September 2024, Atlanta and DeKalb County emergency agencies conducted active air quality monitoring along Moreland Avenue following a chemical plant fire in Rockdale County that sent a massive plume over metro Atlanta, according to a City of Atlanta public safety report tied to the BioLab facility fire in Conyers. And in a rollover Hoodline covered last year, a semi-truck overturned on I-285 southbound before dawn and spilled its cargo, blocking highway traffic for hours — another reminder of how often truck crashes disrupt DeKalb County's transport arteries.

Hoodline has also reported on broader safety concerns along Moreland Avenue, including infrastructure and lighting issues tied to a pedestrian death earlier this month. Open questions remain about the exact concentration of hydrogen peroxide the truck was carrying, the full extent of cargo corrosion before containment, and whether Georgia Department of Public Safety motor carrier enforcement will issue citations following an investigation into the crash.