Mayor thanks emergency services who cleaned up chemical spill which closed highway for hours

An East Coast mayor has thanked emergency services and volunteers who cleaned up a chemical spill which closed a major highway for hours. Find out what happened.

Police are investigating a chemical spill that closed a highway for hours on Friday afternoon.

A chemical spill caused after two drums fell from a truck - closing the Tasman Highway at St Helens for several hours - is being investigated.

Break-O-Day mayor Mick Tucker has praised emergency services and volunteers who attended the spill on Friday afternoon.

Mr Tucker said he believed the highway was closed for seven or eight hours and that there was no access for residents or tourists south of St Helens.

He said there had been some criticism on social media from people angry and upset at the highway closure.

“If you had to go to Launceston or the airport or anywhere, it was via Scottsdale,” he said.

“When people understood what actually happened then I think most people were very accepting.

“It’s not much fun being caught in St Helens when you can’t get back to the Beaumaris, which is only 20 minutes away, or Scamander and on the other side there’s people caught for seven or eight hours who were trying to get back to St Helens who couldn’t get home.

“So it’s very disruptive, but the greatest thank you to the police and fire department and everybody who had anything to do with the clean-up yesterday, because people were out there risking their life cleaning up contaminants, which are quite harmful to your health.

“They put their life on the line and make our community safe.

“The road was closed but it was closed for a reason.”

Break O'Day mayor Mick Tucker.

Mr Tucker said he believed the chemical special was in layman’s terms bleach.

The Tasmania Fire Service contained the spill and crews spent hours continuing clean-up operations with an 800m exclusion zone in place on both sides of the affected area.

They said there was no risk of exposure to the public after the spill was contained.

Police advised people wanting to travel between Launceston and St Helens to go via Scottsdale.

There were no diversions in place at the scene, and motorists were unable to divert along Flagstaff Road.

Police confirmed on Saturday that the incident was caused by two drums falling from a truck and it was being investigated.