Published: November 02, 2009 07:14 pm      

Firefighters contain oil spill

By KANDACE MCCOY

kandace.mccoy@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — It was a busy Halloween for local fire officials as they spent seven hours containing an oil spill on Saturday.

According to fire chief Mike Huntman, the Jefferson Fire Protection District responded to a call on Goshen Lane at 6:06 p.m. Saturday when a oil furnace leaked fuel into a basement of a home which drained from a pipe outside into a road ditch.

“The owners were throwing wood through a basement window and knocked out a line to a 250-gallon fuel tank,” Huntman explained. “There was concern the fuel would contaminate a creek area and we called in the Mt. Vernon Fire Department Hazardous Material team and received help from the Jefferson County Highway Department who brought a backhoe in to make a retention pool and contained the spill.”

Material which spills from anything over 55 gallons, Huntman added, is considered a hazardous spill.

“It’s an unsafe practice to have a spill like that to a house area and potentially dangerous for the environment,” he said. “We were very fortunate we were able to contain it.”

The home owners hired a private company to come in and clean the spill, he said.

Though it is not uncommon for older homes to have a fuel-burning furnace, Huntman said, homeowners should be especially cautious when using those type of heating sources. He added they should also check with their insurance companies to make sure they are covered in case of such a spill.

The JFPD, MVFD and county highway department were on scene for seven hours containing the spill. This was the second incident on Saturday involving mutual response between the two fire departments.

Earlier on Saturday, the JFPD called in mutual aid from the city fire department following a call at 12:29 p.m. of a grain bin fire at the Mt. Vernon Elevator on South 10th Street. Huntman said dust accumulation in a motor had a “smoldering effect” in a bin.