Diesel Fuel Spill Causes Hazard

The Orange Volunteer Fire Department was participating in Safety Day at Home Depot around 12 p.m. when a tone went out for a clean up of a fluid spill at Route 34 and Grassy Hill Road.

Firefighters Joe Oleschuk and Lisa Kaplan took Engine 33 to the site and threw down some Speedy Dry around Lambert Road while other fire engines and the highway department dump trucks filled with sand responded to Route 34 and other intersections, such as Route One and Racebrook Road where tremendous puddles were causing hazards.

Police had to conduct traffic and slow down the oncoming cars so the workers could do their job without getting hit by a sliding vehicle.

Investigation led to a dump truck near the UI site on Marsh Hill Road that had traveled between the UI site and Fieldstone Village on Grassy Hill Road with a punctured fuel tank.

Fire Marshal Tim Smith said the truck lost about 50 gallons of diesel fuel, dumping slick puddles at stop lights and then leaving a fuel trail wherever it traveled making it easy to solve the mystery.

The State Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation also were involved.

The contaminated sand was swept up and disposed of and, according to Smith, none of the fuel is believed to have gotten into any of the drains along the route.