An 18-wheeler hauling a flammable and potentially hazardous chemical has overturned in the westbound lanes of Interstate 10. The accident site is near the downtown Beaumont exit.

Beaumont Fire Captain Earl White said that the driver picked up a load of tetrachloroethylene (also known as perchloroethylene or perc) from Lake Charles, La.

Approximately 20 gallons of the chemical has been contained by Beaumont Hazmat, but it is the responsibility of the trucking company to clean up the spill, said Officer Carol Riley with Beaumont Police Department.

A dry cleaning factory in Basingstoke has been damaged after a fire broke out on the premises yesterday (25thJanuary).

Fire crews were called to Johnsons Apparelmaster on the West Ham Industrial Estate at 10.30am to tackle a blaze which began in one of the industrial cleaning machines, reports the Basingstoke Gazette.

Sixteen firefighters attended the incident and had to wear special gas pipe suits to enter the building due to the presence of the potentially harmful perchloroethylene chemical.

Watch manager John Amos told The Gazette: "The fire itself was not particularly serious, but the problem is that the chemicals that they use in dry cleaning, when combined with fire, produce phosgene gas.

Dangerous vapors in houses near two former Modesto dry cleaners triggered notices from state overseers to local public health officials.

Some occupants say technicians indicated that levels of PCE detected in their homes were no big deal. These people appeared surprised that the state's formal letter to Stanislaus County leaders suggests otherwise, and said they received no formal notice.

"There is reason to believe that the illegal discharges are likely to cause substantial injury to the public health," reads the letter from Michael Vivas, project manager with the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control to county officials, dated Dec. 22.

Although 14 current or former Modesto dry cleaners have polluted groundwater, high concentrations in soil samples at two prompted state officials to request "emergency" action by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Airborne perchloroethylene, or PCE, showed up in levels exceeding the state's limit in all 13 houses tested in May.