On this Monday none of the Canton, Morley, Rensselaer Falls, Lisbon, Heuvelton, or Potsdam firefighters that responded would get a slow start to their week. A large fuel tanker was heading south on Rt 68 and tried to make the turn onto Co Rt 14. The driver was unable to make the turn causing the tank and cab to roll onto its side, coming to rest partially in the roadside ditch. Upon impact the tank ruptured causing the thousands of gallons of fuel oil and gasoline to leak into the ditch causing a major HAZMAT situation. The driver had only minor injuries and was able to self-extricate. He signed off with the EMS crews. Tones dropped initially for Morley Fire/First Responders and Canton Rescue. Upon arrival it was determined that much more manpower would be needed and also class B foam would need to be applied to the fuel spill to prevent ignition and a very large catastrophic fire. Morley Chief Perkins turned over Incident Command to Canton Chief Bob Crowe while he oversaw the foam application and fire suppression if needed. Potsdam Fire was called to bring additional pails of Class B foam. Chief Crowe was in the upwind position and could oversee and coordinate the offloading and HAZMAT situation from there. St. Lawrence County HAZMAT was called for additional supplies and technicians to attempt to contain the spill. They were unable to contain the spill in the tanker and were pulled back to a safe position. The spill was contained in the ditch using large absorbent booms and sand dikes brought in by the DOT. Atlantic Testing Laboratories kindly brought additional booms and absorbent materials to contain the spill. OP-TECH was called by the NYS DEC to the scene to offload the remaining fuel and to do the environmental clean-up. This process took many hours because holes had to be carefully drilled into the side of the tanker. Then fuel had to be offloaded in a very specific and slow manor to prevent static charge from building due to friction of the fuel in the hoses. Once the fuel was offloaded, firefighters were sent in to lay a blanket of foam surrounding the tanker and inside the tank. A heavy duty wrecker was brought in by Rt. 11 Trucking to turn the tanker right side up and remove the vehicle from the scene. The fire and EMS crews were back in service late that night, but the environmental clean-up continued for the following weeks as the soil in the ditch had to be excavated down until it tested clean of any contamination.
