"WEATHERFORD, Okla. — A leaking tanker truck spewed dangerous ammonia gas outside a hotel overnight, filling its hallways with fumes and forcing hundreds of nearby residents of a small Oklahoma city to evacuate, authorities said Thursday. Several dozen people were treated at hospitals.

Officials lifted a shelter-in-place order Thursday morning, hours after firefighters wearing gas masks went door to door in Weatherford, waking people up and telling them to leave because of the anhydrous ammonia leak.

An oil field worker staying at the hotel where the truck had been parked said he heard a “faint pop” Wednesday night and noticed a smell minutes later. He and a coworker left their room and hustled into a hallway and then an elevator filling up with a pungent odor.

Once outside, they saw their vehicles underneath a cloud of ammonia, said Michael Johnson, of Nacogdoches, Texas. “The smell itself punched me,” he said."

Cliff Brunt, Kathy McCormack and Sarah Brumfield report for the Associated Press November 13, 2025. [2]