
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 18, 1994                   TAG: 9409200064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DIESEL FUEL SPILLS AT 10TH STREET

Greasy rainbows streaked a parking lot and nearly an entire block of 10th Street Northwest on Saturday evening after about 450 gallons of diesel fuel gushed from the tanks of a gas station and made its way toward a nearby creek.

The spill may wind up being a costly - not to mention malodorous - mess for the company that owns the station.

The diesel fuel spewed out of the pavement by the gas pumps at the Lancer Mart on the corner of 10th Street and Andrews Road.

"It was bubbling up out of the ground about this high when we first got here," said Roanoke District Fire Chief James A. Patton, measuring out about five inches with his hands. A broken valve in one of the station's pumps caused the spill, he said.

Members of the fire department's hazardous materials team set up three containment dams on the creek several blocks from the spill in Washington Park.

Patton said he couldn't be sure how much of the fuel spilled into the creek, but said the dams were a success, capturing about 99 percent of the fuel in the water.

The flow of fuel came to a stop on its own around 5:15 p.m., Patton said, but police and rescue workers blocked off 10th Street for about 45 minutes while a city maintenance worker spread sand over the area to soak up the slippery stuff.

Fire was never really a danger, according to Patton, since diesel fuel requires a lot of heat to be ignited.

A contractor had begun cleaning up the fuel by around 7 p.m., Patton said.

No charges will be filed in the spill, Patton said, but the company will have to pay the contractor. It must also reimburse the city for its role in the cleanup.

by CNB