Thousands of litres of gasoline bled from a skewered tanker truck yesterday, with the majority of fuel finding its way into the city’s storm drain.
The tanker was reportedly pierced by a rod of rebar around 2 a.m. yesterday morning and began leaking its contents at a Husky service station at 8th Avenue and 33rd Street N.E.
Roughly 5,000 litres of gasoline spilled and around 60 per cent of it is believed to have gone down a storm drain, said Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency.
Fire crews were on the scene with sand and foam in case the gas ignited, though the volatility of the gas was low because it mixed with water in the low air temperature, said the fire department’s Jeff Budai. “We always want to err on the side of caution so we do have the apparatus there just in case we need suppression efforts,” Budai said.
The public should not be worried their drinking water is contaminated as the spill was contained in the storm sewer system, said Mike MacIsaac, a spokesman from Calgary’s water services department.
Some of the fuel was caught in the sewer pipe system, with the residual amounts captured at a storm water containment centre, said MacIsaac.
The driver was taken to hospital as a precaution and released. No injuries have been reported.
