A firefighter keeps watch Wednesday over a partially overturned gasoline tanker truck in the fueling area of a Fort Worth Texaco station. About 3,000 gallons of gasoline leaked out.
Fire Department engineer David Klemencic, left, helps firefighter Ray Russell out of a creek bed Wednesday as firefighters work to contain the spilled gasoline.
A tanker truck carrying unleaded gasoline tipped over at a Texaco station at the corner of East Long and Decatur avenues about noon Wednesday, spilling fuel and prompting officials to evacuate the area in north Fort Worth.
The intersection was closed and a Food City supermarket and some houses in a two-block area were evacuated.
More than 3,000 gallons of gasoline rushed down the street and into nearby storm drains and a small creek before firefighters could contain the spill, said Lt. Kent Worley, a Fire Department spokesman.
Worley said they were able to stop the gasoline from spreading from the creek to the Trinity River.
"Firefighters shoveled dirt and built a small dike to keep the gas from escaping," Worley said.
Worley said the truck driver, an employee of Mission Transport who was not identified, had just positioned the tanker over the offload area to deliver gasoline when he looked in his rearview mirror and saw the the tank tip over. Gasoline rushed down the street from one of four compartments.
No one was injured.
Vaccuum trucks were on-site Wednesday afternoon pumping gas from the spill area. Officials said the cleanup would take a couple of days, as Mission Transport personnel would have to dig up the creek and extract any contaminated dirt.
Distributed by the Associated Press
