MIDLAND, N.C. -- A truck crash and resulting ethanol spill has people in Midland saying “I told you so” and wanting safety improvement.

The ethanol offloading site, the trucks that haul it and the routes they use have been battle points in Midland for months.

"Ethanol is very volatile, easily ignitable,” said Cabarrus County Emergency Management Director Bobby Smith.

The spill was just down the road from Jacki Denton's house. She was evacuated along with other neighbors in a half mile radius of the spill.

"I have a 7 year-old, so anything... I man it could have blown us up this morning,” Denton said.

The truck's route and product, too close to homes.

That's why one town councilmember told us by phone she didn't want it to begin with - and considers this crash "example A."

Midland's mayor says the town fought the ethanol facility, the place where this truck filled up, but legally couldn't stop it.

Now, he says the town and the DOT need to work on improving the roads around the plant and on truck routes.

"Doesn't have very wide lanes, very wide shoulders, so there's always a concern,” Smith said.

As far as the cleanup?

"We still have some residual that is soaked into the ground and that will be removed by the cleanup company digging it out, placing it in containers, removing them from the site and then replacing it with fresh soil,” Smith said.

The ethanol facility and truck route safety will come up at next month's town meeting.

The highway patrol hasn't said what caused the wreck in the first place.

The spill did not injure anyone.

However, one firefighter suffered an apparent heart attack while cleaning it up and another ended up in the hospital as well due to heat exhaustion.

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