Explosion at a petrol station causes 140 gallons of petrol to run “down Main Street” in City of Beacon, USA

An explosion at a City of Beacon gas station caused 140 gallons of gas to run “down Main Street” this afternoon, said City of Beacon Fire Chief Gary Van Voorhis.

 

No one was killed or injured, Van Voorhis said. Some residents on Main Street were evacuated while first responders monitored buildings for any suspicious odors.

 

The spill only affected the Main Street block between Fishkill Avenue, or Route 52, and Veterans Place, said Beacon police Chief Doug Solomon. The section of the road was re-opened by 4 p.m.

 

The explosion happened around 1:45 p.m. at the newly renovated Xtra Fuels gas station, on Main Street and Fishkill Avenue, when an American Petroleum employee was filling the underground gas tanks with fuel, Van Voorhis said.

 

And 140 gallons of gas “shot out of the hole and ran down Main Street,” Van Voorhis said.

 

“It was some kind of explosion, no flame or fire,” Solomon said. “The tank caps blew up 20 or 30 feet in the air.”

 

Firefighters arrived quickly “and diked the gas spill from going to the storm sewer system,” Van Voorhis said. The employee who was filling the tanks was not injured — he “refused medical treatment” — but he was covered in gas. “We hosed him off.”

 

Solomon said he doesn’t believe there was any property damage.

 

The cause of the explosion is unknown at this time, both chiefs said.

Courtesy of poughkeepsiejournal.com

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