BOSTON (CBS) – The state Department Of Transportation has decided to ban trucks carrying hazardous materials, including gasoline and heating oil, from traveling through Boston between 6 a.m and 8 p.m.

Mayor Menino has been fighting for several years for a ban on hazmat trucks from city streets.

He calls the decision a victory for the people of Boston.

“Vehicles carrying hazardous materials through the City pose a significant public safety threat to residents of our effected neighborhoods, as well as to commuters and other daily visitors to Downtown Boston,” Menino’s statement said.

Trucks delivering to or picking up from Boston will still be allowed on the roads.

R. Madina of Pudunagar A block in Vyasarpadi termed Tuesday morning ‘frantic.' The reason – the homemaker and hundreds of other residents, including children in the locality, had to run for their lives following a scare that a fuel station on fire nearby was going to explode.

“This is the fifth time that there is a fire in the petrol bunk. We are scared and want the bunk to be shifted,” said Ms. Madina, who along with other residents, staged a road roko outside Prema Service Station, an IOC fuel station on MKB Nagar Main Road in Vyasarpadi. They demanded its immediate closure.

Police said, a dispensing unit in the bunk which also has an auto LPG dispensing facility, caught fire at 7 a.m. “Some workers shouted out to all residents to flee. A chemical stench emanated, and woman, children and elders from Pudunagar A block and Salaima Nagar located behind the bunk, ran to safety,” said K. Velavan, a resident.

Fire investigators announced that the fire at 4914 Pflaum Road started when gasoline vapors were ignited by a cutting torch. A worker was cutting metal with the torch inside the building. Sparks from the cutting operation ignited gasoline vapors in the area by the torch and the flames quickly spread to a car and other nearby combustibles.

The fire caused $250,000 damage to the auto detail shop where it originated. Minor damage was noted in other businesses in the commercial building. No injuries were reported.

A Santa Rosa Avenue auto repair shop may face criminal charges stemming from an incident in which someone reportedly hosed a chemical spill into a neighboring yard, sending the family who lived there to the emergency room, authorities said.

Santa Rosa fire and police officials began investigating the Jan. 17 incident after several inches of contaminated water flooded the neighbor's back yard, exposing an 8-year-old boy to fumes that caused him to vomit 18 times over the next three days, his father said.

The rest of the family suffered nausea, dizziness and light-headedness that sent them to the hospital, as well.

Their back yard is now cratered while crews clear out contaminated soil. The family's above-ground pool has been drained and ruined, as well.

The fire department has cited Accu Tune & Brake for three permit violations, including unauthorized release of hazardous materials, failure to report the release of hazardous materials, and failure to comply with an order to clean it up, Deputy Fire Chief Tony Gossner said.

Though the investigation is ongoing, police expect to forward a case to the District Attorney's Office seeking criminal charges, police Sgt. Mike Lazzarini said.

Police and fire personnel, as well as Safety-Kleen representative Dan Wienholz, who has been contracted by the city to sample and analyze soil from the neighbor's yard, declined to discuss specific findings, pending completion of the investigation. But Bryan Musco, hired to excavate the site, said he understood the main contaminant was gasoline.

The roadside rest area southwest of Patagonia became a HAZMAT scene on Monday after a tanker truck hauling fuel was seen leaking as it went through town.
At approximately 3 p.m., Patagonia Fire and Rescue were notified that an officer from the Arizona Department of Transportation had stopped the truck within the town limits.
"We went down and took a look," said Fire Captain Ike Isakson. "He had it plugged but it wasn't holding really well so we decided to move the incident out of Patagonia where we thought it would be safer."

MANITOWOC COUNTY - The investigation continues into a fire that closed off a portion of Highway 151 in rural Manitowoc County Tuesday afternoon.

Fire crews were called to a machine shed fire on 151 and Greendale Road west of Valders.

For more than four hours, smoke billowed out from a patch of trees surrounding property along the highway.

Crews from three fire departments battled the blaze.

Those living nearby called in the fire to authorities.

"I looked up and it was a white smoke cloud and it started to turn black," said Neighbor Bernie Starzewski, who was one of many who called in the fire. "There were some small explosions like pop and punk, and things like that.  We're about a half mile away, so they weren't small."

Officials say those pops were chemical and gasoline tanks exploding inside the building.

HYANNIS – Welding work and a gas leak sparked an explosion Friday morning at an automobile recycling busi­ness on Yarmouth Road.

At about 11:30 a.m., an old camper that was being cut apart caught fire as a welder was working on it at Ferrei­ra’s Recycling at 85 Yarmouth Road, said Hyannis Deputy Fire Chief Dean Melanson.

The blaze started with a loud explosion and a large plume of black smoke, he said. Nobody was injured in the fire, he said. Fire officials called the Barn­stable Health Department, which contacted the Depart­ment of Environmental Protec­tion officials about the result­ing gas spill, Melanson said.

Less than 10 gallons of gas leaked onto the prop­erty because of the fire, DEP spokesman Edmund Coletta said.

A broken gas pump causes ten homes to evacuate Saturday night in Owego.

Owego First Assistant Fire Chief Scott gurney says a gas pump malfunctioned at the Citgo gas station on West Main Street around 6:30 p.m. Saturday night, spraying 500 to 700 gallons of gasoline into the street.

Gurney says somewhere around 50 to 100 gallons of gas went into a storm drain. The storm drain goes to the reservoir which leads to the river. A Hazmat team and the Fire Department stopped the gasoline spill before it reached the river.

Hazmat teams found high readings of vapor levels and created a single block radius evacuation.

Crews in Cockrell Hill worked to clean a fuel spill Tuesday morning.

The city’s fire department and Dallas Fire-Rescue's HazMat Response Team responded to the Texaco gas station in the 4200 block of W. Jefferson Boulevard just before 3 a.m., and found gas running down the street. It’s believed one of the underground tanks overflowed.

Crews were able to shut the pumps off, but a large amount of fuel had already spilled.

Residents in Westwood and elsewhere may have been excited to ring in 2012 the night before New Year's Eve, but that night also marked the beginning of a Hazmat situation on High Street.

While filling up the fuel pumps at Westwood Mobil, a significant quantity of gas was spilled during the operation on Dec. 30, Westwood Fire Chief William Scoble said Monday.

But it was days later, on Monday, Jan. 2, when Westwood safety officials responded to the area. The response time was not due to a delay on the part of public safety, but rather because nothing suspicious had been reported until that following Monday.

It was around 4 p.m. that day when tenants at the Coldwell Banker building, which lies adjacent to Westwood Mobil, reported an odor of gas in the building.

The Westwood Fire Department responded to the area and found that gas odors were beyond a normal and safe level inside, and as such evacuated the the employees and tenants of the building.

Upon further investigation, the fumes had been the result of the spilled fuel, which had, by then, seeped into the soil in and around the property near the two buildings, as well as an adjacent residence on Gay Street.

"Upon questioning, the company admitted to a small spill," Scoble said. But the company, he added, reported a spill of less than 10 gallons. After investigating further, officials discovered more than 10 gallons had been spilled.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- A tanker truck overturned Friday afternoon, and leaking fuel closed down two major roadways in Spartanburg, causing a ripple effect on traffic all over the west side of Spartanburg.
Spartanburg Public Safety Capt. Art Littlejohn said the gasoline tanker was on Southport Road (Highway 295) making a left turn onto John B. White Sr. Boulevard when it overturned.

Hundreds of residents have been allowed to return to their homes in an upstate village after being evacuated by a gasoline leak at a convenience store that caused explosions in the sewer system.
 
The Post-Star of Glens Falls reports that loud blasts began blowing manhole covers off roadways in Fort Edward around 8 p.m. last night.
 
The newspaper reports Washington County used its reverse 911 system and sent firefighters door-to-door to evacuate between 300 and 400 residents of the village, 45 miles north of Albany.
 
School buses took people to Fort Edward High School. They began returning home overnight after roads in Fort Edward and neighboring Hudson Falls reopened.
 
Authorities say the underground explosions were caused by gasoline that flowed into the sewers after leaking from a pump at a convenience store in Hudson Falls.
 

A petrol tanker that exploded on a California highway burned with such extreme heat it cracked the highway and a concrete overpass.

The tanker caught fire on the 60 Freeway underneath the Paramount Boulevard in Montebello yesterday about noon (US time).

All lanes of the freeway were closed as about 200 firefighters sprayed chemical foam for nearly three hours to douse the double tanker.

The driver and a passenger escaped without injuries but a firefighter suffered a fractured leg and was taken to hospital.

BOWIE, Md. - A tanker carrying 9,000 gallons of gas overturned in Bowie Monday night spilling fuel into the roadway, authorities said.

The gas tanker and at least two other vehicles collided in the southbound lanes of Route 3 before Route 450 in Bowie just before 9:30 p.m., fire officials said.

The tanker overturned on its side and began to leak a small amount of fuel.

Firefighters responded to an auto body shop on Willard Street Monday afternoon on a report of a fire involving gasoline. deal with a small barrel of gasoline that caught on fire underneath a vehicle.

Deputy Fire Chief Paul Hinchion said it was a good thing Diaz Racing, located in the industrial park off Pulaski Street, had a working sprinkler system, otherwise it would have been a very different story.

 TOPPENISH, Wash. — Nearly a half million dollars worth of losses are estimated from a farm shop fire about 6 miles west of Toppenish.

The fire, reported about 2:20 p.m. Monday, took place at the Green Acres Farm at 6080 Campbell Road.

It started when gasoline from a vehicle being repaired came into contact with a work lamp, according to a press release issued this morning by Yakima County Fire District. No. 5.

The light bulb exploded causing additional gasoline to catch fire, which quickly spread to the rest of the shop, which measured about 40-by-60 feet, according to firefighters.

HUNTINGTON BEACH – A boat exploded in Huntington Harbour about 11:30 a.m. Saturday, injuring eight people aboard, the Sheriff's Harbor Patrol said.
Nine people, ranging in age from teens to 50, were on the 26-foot power boat when it exploded, Sheriff's Deputy William Nelson said. Eight were injured and have been taken to hospitals, he said.ADVERTISEMENT
The nine people were headed to Long Beach, Nelson said. The boat was two to three minutes away from the harbor's main public launching ramp when the driver noticed gasoline leaking and commented to the passengers that they should turn back. That's when the explosion occurred, Nelson said.
"They didn't get very far at all when they started having engine trouble," Huntington Beach Fire Capt. Bob Culhane said. The engine had been sputtering, he said.

Tens of thousands of North Bay commuters were late for work, school, appointments and other destinations Thursday after a fuel tanker hit a big rig on Highway 101 in Cotati, spilling 1,200 gallons of gasoline across the roadway.

There were no injuries in the crash, but the impact halted the morning commute at 6:30 a.m. and began a day-long traffic snarl as the CHP shut the northbound lanes of the region's main transportation artery at Highway 116. Southbound traffic then also came to a crawl as rubberneckers slowed to get a look at the damaged trucks and roadway.

FARMINGTON — A fuel truck driver from New Mexico was killed and more than 4,000 gallons of gasoline spilled on U.S. 550 north of the state line Friday after a fuel tanker crashed, authorities said.

Colorado State Patrol officers, including Hazmat teams, responded at about 1:17 p.m. to U.S. 550, about one-tenth of a mile above the New Mexico-Colorado state line, where the tanker crashed, Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Mike Baker said.

Emergency crews spent five hours Wednesday clearing Highway 70 after an accident involving a tanker truck spilled 1,800 gallons of gas on the road, but that was just the beginning of their work.
"We are estimating up to 900 yards plus more contaminated soil," Caltrans Hazmat Manager Carl Snibbe said.
Hazmat crews spent Thursday cleaning up the mess after a tanker truck spilled 1,800 gallons of gasoline on the side of Highway 70 in Pulga.
CHP officers say the driver swerved off the road side swiping a snow plow parked on the shoulder Wednesday morning.

Skip Route 8 northbound tonight, because State Police are reporting a gasoline tanker rollover on the Thomaston Watertown line on Route 8 overlooking the Naugatuck River.

Danbury Fire Department hazmat equipment and personnel are assisting in this dangerous situation. An estimated 5,500 gallons of gasoline have drained into the ground. That soil must now be removed.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A leaking gasoline pipeline in Kenya's capital exploded on Monday, turning part of a slum into an inferno in which at least 61 people were killed and more than 100 hurt.
Flames leapt out from the pipeline in a radius of some 300 yards (meters), setting shacks ablaze and incinerating scores of people. Reporters later saw clusters of charred bodies and blackened bones at the site. Some burned bodies floated in a nearby river filled with sewage. Homes had been built right up to the pipeline, the residents said.
"I've lost count of the number of bodies," said Wilfred Mbithi, the policeman in charge of operations in Nairobi as he stood at the scene. "Many had dived into the river trying to put out their flames."
Provincial Commissioner Njoroge Ndirangu said at least 61 bodies have been recovered so far, but said the death toll from the blast will rise.

No injuries were reported Wednesday morning after a gasoline spill at a convenience store in northern Gaston County.

Residents were evacuated from three houses near the store, on East Trade Street in Dallas. Gaston County authorities say a gasoline tanker was pumping fuel into the tanks at the Mini Mart, when the gas started leaking.

The driver discovered the leak a short time later, but about 100 gallons had spilled. The county's Hazmat team responded, but some nearby residents were forced from their homes for safety reasons.

Indianapolis— Fire crews from IFD and Speedway closed the ramp from westbound Crawfordsville Road and northbound I-465 after a semi overturned, killing a Delphi man.

Troopers say the accident happened around 12:40 a.m. Wednesday. Reports say Shawn Sullivan, 47, was driving a semi that was pulling a tanker trailer loaded with around 8,000 gallons of gasoline westbound on the Crawfordsville Road ramp to northbound I-465.

Police say Sullivan lost control and the semi went off the roadway into a ditch.  The investigation report states that Sullivan got trapped inside the cab of the semi after the tractor trailer overturned.  He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Crews quickly closed the ramp to traffic. Shortly after that, they called in a HazMat team from Speedway Fire Department and a tanker from the Indianapolis Airport Fire Department to lay down a layer of protective foam.  About 3,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from the tanker.

BRIDAL VEIL, Ore. -- A major cleanup project continues on I-84 in the Gorge, where a tanker truck rolled near Multnomah Falls and spilled more than 1,000 gallons of gas.
HazMat teams were preparing the site for major excavation and taking soil samples Tuesday. Some of the gas seeped into the soil and experts were also concerned it could get into groundwater and eventually reach the Columbia River.
Starting early Wednesday morning, the HazMat crews will dig up the contaminated soil and vacuum out the gas.

The right eastbound lane of Interstate 84 east of Multnomah Falls will remain closed for about a mile through Monday, July 25, and perhaps through Tuesday, July 26, where a gas tanker crashed Sunday night.

The lane closure will allow hazardous materials investigators to inspect for damage caused by 900 to 1,000 gallons of gasoline leaking from the two tankers that crashed at about 5 p.m. Sunday, July 26, near milepost 34, about two miles east of Multnomah Falls, said Kimberly Dinwiddie, Oregon Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

Investigators will check for damage to the road, to the adjacent area and for seepage under the highway roadbed.

Oregon State Police (OSP) troopers, with assistance of Multnomah County Sheriff's Office deputies, are continuing the investigation into a commercial tanker truck and semi-trailer tanker rollover crash that closed the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84 about two miles east of Multnomah Falls. ODOT, fire and a hazardous materials response team are on scene assessing the damage, coordinating clean up efforts and working to re-open the eastbound lanes.

Updated information indicates on July 24, 2011 at approximately 5:00 p.m. a tanker truck pulling a semi-tanker containing an estimated total of 3,000 gallons of unleaded gasonline was traveling eastbound on Interstate 84 near milepost 34. The truck traveled off the right shoulder and collided into a guardrail, damaging about 500 feet of railing as the truck and trailer rolled onto their right side. The truck came to rest blocking the eastbound lanes and the trailer came to rest overturned on the other side of the railing.

SAUGUS - One man died and several people were injured early yesterday when a tanker carrying thousands of gallons of gasoline rolled over through a median on Route 1 and exploded in a towering fireball.

The driver of the tanker, Neal Michaud, 59, of Manchester, N.H., was trapped in the cab and died at the scene. He was driving a truck for PJ Murphy Transportation of Methuen about 2:15 a.m. when he lost control of the truck, which crashed and rolled across the guardrail and into the southbound lane of the divided highway, said David Procopio, a State Police spokesman.

Berthoud Pass will be closed until at least 6:30 p.m. this evening, July 21, while clean-up continues on an accident involving a tanker truck.

Colorado State Patrol hazmat units are on scene dealing with a spill from gasoline tanker that rolled on Berthoud Pass, just above Floral Park according to Colorado Department of Transportation spokesperson Bob Wilson.

NORTHPORT — Route 1 was re-opened to traffic Friday afternoon after police and emergency crews cleaned up the scene of a fuel truck rollover that prompted police to evacuate nearby residents.

Maine State Police Lieutenant David Tripp reported that Route 1, which had been closed to traffic since the accident occurred just before 8:30 a.m., was re-opened at about 3:20 p.m.

Earlier in the day, Tripp explained that traffic was being re-routed onto the Perkins Road, through the Woods Road and back over to Rocky Road because the fuel truck, which was registered to Thompson’s Oil out of Waldo, was loaded with 4,250 gallons of gasoline at the time of the accident. Residents were evacuated as a precaution, Tripp said.

Hazardous Materials crews are on the scene off an accident Monday cleaning up spilled gasoline from a semi-truck. The accident happened at the intersection of Highway 23, also known as Division Street in St. Cloud, and Wilson Avenue just before 9 p.m. Sunday night.

When St. Cloud police arrived they found a commercial truck had drifted off the road and hit a bridge pier, causing the truck to leak gasoline onto the roadway. At the time of the accident Highway 23 was shut down from Lincoln Avenue to Wilson Avenue. The clean up is expected throughout Monday causing detours in the area.

The driver, who was not identified in the police report, apparently fell asleep while driving and received minor injuries in the crash.

The Louisiana State Police Hazardous Materials Response Team worked Tuesday to contain a gasoline leak in West Monroe.

The team was called out Monday to respond to the leak near the intersection of North Seventh Street and Arkansas Road at a convenience store. Troop F spokesman Trooper Mark Dennis said gasoline from a previous leak at the site had been pushed up toward the surface of the ground because of saturated soil from recent heavy rains.

A portion of Arkansas Road that was closed while the site was cleaned reopened Tuesday night.

"It is going to take another day or two to devise an extraction well and get the remainder of the gas out of there," Dennis said. "This isn't an underground rupture."

Dennis said the ground moisture pushed existing gasoline in the soil into an underground phone line junction box. Dennis said no water or sewer lines had been contaminated by the seeping gasoline.

GREAT BEND, Kansas - Police have closed down part of Highway 281 due to a semi truck that has overturned four miles north of Great Bend.

The truck came to rest in the east ditch and spilled gallons of gasoline, according to police.

A hazmat response team is responding to the accident to clean up the area.

The driver of the semi was taken by air ambulance to a Wichita hospital. His condition is not currently known. 

Police report that the road will remain closed until gasoline has been cleaned up.

COLLEGE AREA (CBS 8) - Hazmat crews are investigating how gasoline ended up pouring into the sewer system in the 4800 block of Campanile Dr., near San Diego State.

Authorities suspect that someone dumped an unknown quantity of gas into the sewer system, possibly by dumping it down a drain.

The gas vapors then rose from the sewer system below to the manhole covers above it, releasing an intense odor of gasoline that residents thought was a gas leak.

BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho State Police say a tanker truck crashed on Interstate 84 in southwestern Idaho, critically injuring the driver, spilling thousands of gallons of gasoline and closing a 13-mile stretch of the westbound lanes for about nine hours.
The patrol says the semi was eastbound and negotiating a curve east of Mountain Home at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday when the tanker went off the left shoulder of the road, down a slope into the median and overturned.
The driver, 39-year-old Danny Guntrum of Nampa, was taken by air ambulance to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise. The nursing supervisor said he was critical condition Thursday morning.

TEXARKANA, TX, (KSLA) - Avoid Highway 59 near the Primary Campus of Liberty Eylau Schools in Texarkana, Texas.

It's been closed since early Tuesday morning after a tanker carrying gasoline ended up in a ditch spilling thousands of gallons of its load.

The Bowie County Sheriff's Department recommends FM2516/Buchanan Loop Rd. to Kings Highway as an alternate route for the time being.

Cleanup could take hours. There have been no injuries or evacuations reported.

Liberty Eylau's Primary School campus is closed because of the accident. Classes at that location are canceled for the day.

KSLA News 12's Denise Middleton reports live from the scene on KSLA News 12 at Noon.

Copyright 2011 KSLA-TV. All Rights Reserved.

 

KANNAPOLIS — Two people were severely injured in a chemical explosion and fire in Kannapolis around 7 p.m. today.

A 40-year-old female has been airlifted to Baptist Hospital with burns over 36 percent of her upper body, authorities said. The explosion occurred at 1935 Angela Lane, according to the Kannapolis Police Department. The department did not have the woman’s name and Kannapolis firefighters were not available by phone.

A second victim, the woman's nephew, was taken to Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast in Concord. The patient's condition was not available. The woman threw what she thought was diesel fuel on a bonfire, according to her brother, who spoke to a Post photographer. The chemical turned out to be gasoline, he said. The female victim caught fire, and her nephew attempted to put out the flames when he was injured. Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.

A tanker truck spilled 2,000 gallons of gasoline in the Port of Tampa area Thursday evening, Tampa Fire Rescue officials said.

A gasoline tanker, which was carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel, struck a yellow cement parking post while exiting a Marathon fuel terminal at Linsey and 20th streets about 6 p.m., according to a report.

Most of the spilled gas fell into drains on the property and into a fuel-water separator, preventing any pollution, according to the report.

The remaining fuel in the tanker is being pumped out. When it is empty, it will be moved back onto the terminal property.

Residences near the incident were alerted to the danger but no evacuations were necessary, the report said.

Driver Thomas D. Camery, 51, of Auburndale, who was driving the truck for an Atlanta-based Energy Dispatch, will be cited for an improper left turn, Tampa police said.

Chicago - Gasoline fumes coming from a sewer prompted a HazMat that shut down two Cook County courtrooms Tuesday afternoon in the West Side Lawndale neighborhood.

A Level 1 HazMat was called to the building at Flournoy Street and Kedzie Avenue about noon, according to Fire Media Affairs Dir. Larry Langford.

Fire crews did not evacuate the building although some people may have gone out of the courthouse on their own, Langford said.

The HazMat was secured at 1:39 p.m. and fire crews determined it was caused by gasoline fumes from a nearby sewer, Langford said. There were no reports of injuries.

Two branch courtrooms in the First Municipal District that are located in the Chicago Police Department's Harrison District facility were temporarily closed as fire crews responded to the "noxious fumes," according to a release from the office of Circuit Court of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans.

FLORENCE — About 50 gallons of gasoline spilled after a filler elbow attached to a hose from a gasoline tanker was broken off at a Florence gasoline station late Monday morning.
An engine from Florence Fire Station 4 was called about 11:45 a.m. to Breaker’s at West Hoffmeyer Road and West Evans Street.
While the tanker belonging to B-Line Trucking out of Greenville was filling up, a car backed over the elbow, breaking it off. Officials said the driver of the tanker shut off the gasoline right away using the emergency shut-off switch.