Several roads in Whitfield County in northwest Georgia were briefly closed Monday morning while Dalton police and fire crews responded to a chemical reaction at a plant.

The incident, which occurred before 7:30 a.m at the MFG Chemical plant on Kimberly Park Drive, was initially reported by authorities as a chemical explosion, but was a chemical reaction, according to Dalton police spokesman Bruce Frazier.

Frazier said the chemical involved is an irritant but is not poisonous, and one person on the scene had to be decontaminated and transported to WellStar Cobb Hospital in Austell after apparently inhaling the chemical.

Frazier said Willowdale Road, Kimberly Park Drive and Crow Valley Road were closed for a short period, but have reopened. The chemical could be smelled from nearby U.S. 41, but that highway was not shut down.

Dalton is about 90 miles northwest of Atlanta.

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