Connellsville officials praise cooperation given after tanker crash
CONNELLSVILLE – City police, fire and ambulance directors are praising the efforts of their own staffs and those rushing to lend assistance during the Thursday fuel spill and fire. Connellsville Police Chief Stephen Cooper said Friday that words couldn’t express how grateful he was for the cooperative effort of his staff, the Connellsville Police Auxiliary, New Haven Fire Police and the police and auxiliary police departments from Uniontown, Dunbar, state police along with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office who sent both on-duty and off-duty personnel to the scene Thursday.
About 20 emergency agencies from Fayette, Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection, sent equipment and personnel to the Route 119 accident scene shortly after a tanker truck carrying 7,700 gallons of gasoline, fuel oil and kerosene overturned and burst into flames.
“We were really in the midst of a bad situation with a major road closed down that forced all traffic through the city, and everyone responded,” said Cooper.
Uniontown Police Chief Kyle Sneddon was the first to respond, with one on-duty officer and four police auxiliary members sent to the city, followed by Fayette County Sheriff Gary Brownfield, who dispatched five uniformed deputies and auxiliary members to the scene.
Cooper said the 17 members of the city department responded immediately to the accident, with many working overtime to maintain traffic flow and assist with the later evacuation of residents and business workers when it was determined the area was unsafe.
“(Dunbar Police Chief) Mike Garlowich came on his own and stayed for hours,” said Cooper. “(State constables) Rocky Younkin and Dan Porterfield went wherever we asked them to. I can’t say enough as to how great everyone reacted.”
Connellsville Fire Department Chief Joe Childs expressed similar sentiments regarding the participation by nearly 200 emergency personnel from the three counties that came with equipment and spent hours battling the blaze.
“We don’t have the resources here for something like that,” said Childs. “Everybody did a class job.”
Childs said it was the first time in his 35 years as a firefighter to respond to an overturned tanker that had exploded and burst into flames.
“We’ve had overturned flatbeds, but never anything like this,” he said. “It’s a heck of a way to get experience.”
Childs said the most crucial factor facing those at the scene was how secure was the contents of the truck.
“You didn’t know what it was going to do. The back of the truck had already blown out and there was a leak underneath we couldn’t get to,” he said. “What had leaked was burning and it was getting into the sewer lines. It was one calamity after another.”
Childs estimated the temperatures near the truck reached 2,000 degrees.
Despite the environmental damage, Childs said if the truck had rolled to its other side, it would have ignited the residences along the roadway.
“We would have lost several homes and maybe some lives,” he speculated.
Fayette EMS director of operations Rick Adobato said it was “a miracle” that no one was injured when so many people were involved throughout the day.
The local ambulance service had alerted other services throughout the county to remain on-duty while his firm stood on stand-by should there be a need for immediate medical attention.
“The police and fire departments were at their very best,” he said.