Fire departments often rely on HAZMAT, air base in major fires

YOUNGSTOWN

Fire departments that have major roads and freeways traveling through their coverage areas say although they keep small amounts of foam to handle gasoline fires, they often rely on HAZMAT teams and crews from the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna to help fight major gasoline fires.

The consensus among chiefs for Boardman, Austintown and the Cardinal Joint Fire District was if there were any fire that would force them to use the foam they had, they would need assistance anyway.

Early Thursday, a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline flipped on its side while traveling east on Interstate 80 in Liberty in Trumbull County and burst into flames.

Intense flames scorched the pavement, burned trees up to 25 feet and scorched about 100 yards of grass surrounding the highway. It took crews more than four hours to extinguish the fire.

At one point, the interstate was closed in both directions.

Liberty firefighters had trouble reaching the scene and also do not have foam to fight gasoline fires.

A truck from Hubbard was first on the scene, and although it has some foam, the truck later was joined by the air reserve station firefighters who finished putting out the fire.

Read more about the matter in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.