An SSA Marine-operated forklift punctured nine cylinders of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) and launched an emergency that disrupted Morehead City activities.

The operator was using a 1996 Hyster model S80X1BCS with lifting capacity of 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg). The task was to unload the cylinders from a 20 foot (6m) cargo container in the state port and transfer them to a waiting truck. Leakage from the cylinders was reported at 4:44 am on 12 January.

Officials closed a portion of an interstate highway, ordered a voluntary evacuation for nearby residents and businesses and established an initial two-mile (3.2 km) in-water safety zone that was later reduced to 300 yards (27m). The US Coast Guard kept the port restriction in place for more than two days.

Maxam Ueb Sociedad Limitada of Galdakao, Spain, a maker of explosives, shipped the PETN as slurry on the merchant ship Lehmann Forester. After Morehead City, the cargo's destination was a commercial customer in Detroit, Michigan.

The cargo container was offloaded with the port's gantry crane because the ship's offloading gear was not working. The Coast Guard approved an application to unload the material.

Police, fire and emergency management teams from local communities, military hazardous material specialists and US Customs and Border Protection agents responded in addition to port authority and coast guard representatives. Follow-up inquiries are under way.

"The investigation will consider what various participating agencies and organizations could have done differently, review policies and procedures for handling explosive loads at both the Port of Morehead City and Wilmington terminals and determine questions that arose and lessons learned," says Karen Fox, senior director of communications for the North Carolina State Ports Authority.

SSA Marine and its affiliates operate cargo terminals in multiple global locations and report to holding company Carrix Inc of Seattle, Washington.

The Christmas Day bombing attempt by a Nigerian man on a Northwest airline flight en route to Detroit involved PETN, but there was no indication of any terrorist connection with the spill. PETN by itself is not dangerous, but the chemical is highly explosive when mixed with other substances.