A spill of hazardous materials from a truck forced the closing of Interstate 24 in both directions for about four hours on Wednesday, as fire department personnel addressed the issue.

Officials said the FedEx box truck on I-24 near the Germantown Road exit was leaking organic peroxide, part of its cargo. Crews from the Chattanooga Fire Department under the lead incident command of the East Ridge Fire Department responded at about 4 p.m. With the interstate shutdown, motorists using alternate routes snarled traffic on Ringgold and Brainerd Roads and secondary streets in the area.

Officials ordered an evacuation of residents in the surrounding area, which included homes on Gleason Drive to Navajo Drive, Maple Lane to Bonnie Lassie, Anderson Avenue from Germantown to Norma Drive and homes on Frawley Street, Alice Drive and Broughton Street.

The interstate reopened at about 7:30 p.m.

In a separate incident just before 8 p.m., a van collided with a transfer truck on I-24 west near the Fourth Avenue exit. The truck was carrying floor stripper which leaked on the roadway. Emergency personnel engaged in a technical extraction of the driver of the van while crews from a private company cleaned up the floor stripper from the roadway.

The hazmat incident was the fourth in the area in the last two months.