After a closure of almost 24 hours, German Flats Road in Fayston has reopened. The cause of an explosion that destroyed a dump truck and closed German Flats Road on December 9 is not known and Hazmat plus clean-up crews remain on the scene as The Valley Reporter goes to press on December 10.
The Waitsfield-Fayston Volunteer Fire Department responded to the 12:22 p.m. call and first assistant chief Daniel Beede said VSP and Vermont DMV did not respond. The Mad River Valley Ambulance Service did respond and transported the driver of the truck to CVMC with smoke inhalation. Beede said the driver was helped from the truck by Bouchard Pierce employees who were near the scene and called in the fire.
The explosion took place in the southbound lane of German Flats above the Fayston Elementary School and before the Mount Ellen access road. The road was closed through the end of the day and cold temps hampered the clean-up attempts. Diesel, motor oil and other fluids, as well as the fiberglass from the cab ended up on the side of the road and ran down the travel lane along with firefighting fluids.
Firefighters worked to contain the hazardous materials with dams, absorbent materials, booms and sand from the Fayston road crew.
Yesterday’s freezing temps meant that the diesel, oil, and other hazardous materials froze in place which helped with mitigation, Beede said.
“Hazmat showed up and started their work. They called in Republic Services to do the cleanup. They salted the road so that the hazardous materials could melt to the point where they could be cleaned up. They pumped out the tanks on the truck and tried to get a wrecker in, but by that time it wasn’t possible to get someone to remove the truck, Beede said. Firefighters were on scene until 7:30 p.m.
The road was closed through the night. Midstate Towing came on Wednesday to work on getting the truck on a lowboy and hauled away but that effort was hampered by a need to remove the materials from the fully-loaded dump truck. It was carrying 73,000 pounds of material.
“The fire caused substantial deterioration to the frame and blew out some of the wheels. This morning they’re working on getting it on a lowboy. Once it’s away from the scene Republic Services will be continuing the cleanup and will dig up the snow and soil as needed to get the site cleaned,” Beede said.
Beede said that the fire started in the front of the truck and the cause is unknown. The tanks were impinged, he said and the diesel started burning. The cause of the explosion hasn’t been pinpointed, he added.
“It could have been a tire, a compressor for the airbrakes or anything,” he noted, and said that there was concern that the overhead powerlines may have been damaged. Green Mountain Power was called and came to inspect the lines and found them to be undamaged.
Ten firefighters from the Waitsfield-Fayston department responded to the fire.
