MIDLAND, N.C.-- A tanker truck over turns spilling flammable ethanol into a creek in Midland, NC.

Everyone within a half mile of the spill on Garmon Mill road was evacuated from their homes Friday.

Hazardous Material crews from several counties worked from 8 in the morning into the night trying to contain and clean the spill.

Neighbors tell News Channel 36 reporter Alex Reed, this accident is exactly why they never wanted these trucks driving on their small rural roads.

“I said well I’ll get back in,” explains neighbor Brady Bratain.

He’s diabetic and had planned to return home after breakfast on Friday for his insulin shot. But when he got close a State Trooper told him he wasn’t allowed back home.

Bratain told him, “What am I going to do if I go into a diabetic coma?”

He never imagined that tractor trailer carrying 8 thousand gallons of flammable ethanol fuel would over-turn near his home, forcing dozens to evacuate the area, including himself.

Jason Burnett with Cabarrus County Emergency Management says the evacuation was necessary, “due to the flammability of the product.”

Haz-Mat crews worked through sweltering heat to contain the 15 hundred gallons which leaked out of the truck.

Rain threatened to raise the water levels above the containment dams, possibly setting the ethanol free to run down stream.

Burnett says, “Right now we don’t know the exact environmental impact.”

The truck was coming from the brand new Midland Transload Railway dock less than a mile down the road – a facility Bratain says neighbors never wanted built. “Yeah they opposed it, but it went through anyway.”

This is exactly what they feared would happen on their small rural roads. “If it’s that dangerous, why are we hauling it up and down the road to start with,” exclaims Bratain.

We did some digging and found that lawsuits were filed to try and stop the facility from being built.

In April, Midland town Mayor John, Crump requested a site safety meeting with the company that runs the transload facility, the N.C.D.O.T., and the fire marshal.

Did it ever happen?  

We're going to keep digging on this one, but obviously a lot of safety concerns about this plant and look at what happened Friday.

Meanwhile the E.P.A. was on scene trying to assess any damage to surrounding waterways or animals.