LOGAN, Utah (ABC 4 NEWS) - People in Logan are wishing the valuable gasoline spilled onto the street could have gone in their tanks instead of into the city storm drain. It’s lost for good, a leak that sent gasoline flowing down Logan's Main Street.
If the morning sun or traffic didn't wake some Logan residents up the smell of gasoline probably did. Molly Purser says, “It was definitely a thick smell of petroleum.” An oil truck was refilling the underground tanks at a Chevron station when the connection broke causing what some describe as a "river" of gas flowing down 400 North at Main Street. Assistant Fire Chief Brady Hansen says, “The spiller estimated somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 gallons, we estimate to be considerably more than that at least 300 or more gallons.”
All of that fuel ran into the storm drain, down a block, then resurfaced thanks to a design feature in the drain that actually made things easier for fire and hazmat crews. Hansen says, “We didn't end up loosing that hundreds of gallons of fuel into a river into a canal where it could have caused great damage to the environment plus it would have spread our fuel vapors much much farther.”
But the situation gets worse as fire fighters worry about the fuel vapors which could have ignited at any point. Hansen says, “We shut off the power, shut off the gas.. natural gas, shut of pilot lights and things like that, closed the roads so cars couldn't cause a problem otherwise we were at risk for this block and block downstream be at considerable risk for fire explosion.”
Officials evacuated an entire block. Purser, who was home, says, “Cops came up banging on the door saying stay in your house for now then they came just a minute later saying get out we're evacuating.” It took crews about six hours to get the situation under control.
There is still a bit of fuel that's been absorbed into the cement. The site is being monitored by the Bear River Health Department to make sure that it is not a danger to the public. The City of Logan says they will bill the petroleum supplier for the clean-up costs.
