Firefighters from the Airdrie Fire Department (AFD) along with employees from the City of Airdrie’s Public Works department had their hands full containing and clearing up a significant gas spill in a parking lot on Eighth Street and First Avenue N.W. on Dec. 10.
Deputy Fire Chief Garth Rabel said the AFD was called at approximately 9:30 a.m. and found a passenger van had released approximately 100 litres of gasoline onto the ground. The gasoline then traveled into the storm water system.
“The crews did a great job of socking the area and managing the contamination that was in the parking lot,” Rabel said. “Once we got Enviro Hazmat (Emergency Response Inc.), the contractor that we bring in from outside, on site, they worked with our team and Public Works to pull all manhole covers to determine exactly how far any contaminant had gone in the system.
“We managed to keep it within the storm sewer itself, the catch basin and infrastructure before it could get into the creek. We socked (Nose Creek) as well.”
Crews also cordoned off the area to keep traffic away from the scene.
The clean-up and sanitizing of the area took approximately six hours.
“There was about 300 metres of underground infrastructure that needed cleaning and then contamination removal,” Rabel said.
What caused the van to lose all its fuel is still being determined.
“It’s an ongoing investigation,” Rabel said. “We did have a fuel leak from that van. We’re just working with the RCMP to determine why.”
Five firefighters from AFD assisted with the situation with the help of two pieces of apparatus and employees from Public Works and Enviro Hazmat.
