There was a major cleanup effort in Manchester Monday, after a massive gasoline spill around 9 p.m. Sunday. A tanker dumped thousands of gallons around exit 60 of Interstate 84 East, causing a major fire.
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials say 8300 gallons of gasoline were spilled after a Jeep collided with a tanker truck on I-84.
According to Connecticut State Police the truck, operated by Brown Bear Transportation of Springfield and driven by 26-year-old Dominic Wesley Clark also from Springfield, was traveling in the center lane. Police say the Jeep moved from the right lane directly into the truck’s established path. Both vehicles rolled over. Luckily all involved escaped with only minor injuries.
“(The Truck driver) and everybody else were able to get out,” said DEEP Supervising Emergency Response Coordinator, Ken LeClerc. “Considering the truck rolled over and burst into flames. That’s fantastic.”
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The impact though, has been significant. Cleanup crews worked all day Monday to excavate the area, removing gasoline-saturated soil. The DEEP has been sampling soil to evaluate environmental impact.
“Right now it appears that we are above the groundwater table, and the only impact is soil contamination in the area where the truck was,” said LeClerc.
So far soil samples have come back clean but more lab testing is being done. DEEP says the environmental impact may have been lessened by letting the fire burn itself out, a decision made in conjunction with the Manchester Fire Department.
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“That shorten the duration of the incident, and really significantly lessened the amount of mitigation and clean up that needs to happen,” said Manchester Fire Chief, Dan French.
Neither PFAS foam nor water was used to douse the fire.
“You could put water on it, but then you have the runoff concerns. You’d have gasoline-laden water that’s running into storm drains, and so forth,” French explained.
As the fuel burned off, the highway was closed for several hours Sunday night. Crews say they will not stop working this labor day, until I-84 East at exit 60, is flowing smoothly again.
“Our goal is to have the highway reopened to three lanes by (Tuesday) morning, LeClerc said.
According to the police report, the driver of the Jeep, 46-year-old Dina Karat of Enfield, was cited for operating a motor vehicle under suspension and failure to maintain proper lane. She is scheduled to be in court in Manchester on Sept. 22.
