Source: http://www.wcpo.com, August 4, 2015
By: Evan Millward, Zac Pitts, Jordan Burgess
Lightning from Monday’s storms sparked a fuel tank explosion along a busy Butler County road, sending a fireball skyward and leaving behind a 40-foot-wide crater in the earth.
Officials said Tuesday that cleaning up the three fuel tanks compromised by Monday’s lightning strike could be a complex process involving multiple agencies.
Fairfield Fire Chief Don Bennett told WCPO news partner the Journal-News that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the state fire marshal, the groundwater consortium, and the city’s utility department, among other local and state agencies, will all be involved in the cleanup of the site.
Gas Depot has three tanks, each holding about 10,000 gallons; only one exploded, Bennett said, but the others are considered compromised because of the blast. The Fairfield Fire Department assumed that each tank was about three-quarters full.
The cleanup, Bennett explained, will require removing the damaged underground fuel tanks and installing new replacements, a task which requires a licensed contractor.
The greatest risk after the explosion were vapors that could come into contact with an open flame, Bennett said. Police remained on site overnight to monitor the situation.
While the situation created risk for serious environmental impact, Bennett said, it could have been worse. “Worst case scenario? I think we cleared that,” he said. “The tanks were at a level we’d consider minimal fuel containment.
Neighbors were evacuated for nearly a half-mile in every direction of the Gas Depot, on Dixie Highway at Winton Road, shortly after 6 p.m. Monday.
“The description of the property owner and the neighbor is they saw the lightning strike the ground, and immediately there was a fireball that they described higher than the trees,” Bennett said.
The State Fire Marshal’s office said Tuesday morning the explosion was the first time on record that lightning struck an underground gas tank in Ohio.
Robert Tucker felt the explosion at his home blocks away.
“It just blasted me, that’s all I can say,” Tucker said. “Black smoke just rolled into the air.”
Firefighters battled rain, hail, lightning and thunder to put out the flames using foam from Greater Cincinnati Haz Mat.
Crews were expected to be on-site all day Tuesday for the start of cleanup operations.
“I can tell you, in my 45-year career, I have never seen anything like this,” Bennett said. “Underground storage tanks are put there to reduce the potential for fire.”
The working theory, Bennett said, is that the explosion was in a diesel tank. However, he pointed out that’s not consistent with witnesses’ accounts of a fireball: Diesel usually isn’t as volatile as gasoline unless it’s very hot. Bennett said he expected to know more Tuesday.
Although the evacuation was called off by 7:20 p.m., some streets stayed closed for another hour so fire hoses could be removed from Dixie Highway.