After a gasoline spill at the Speedway on the corner of S. Tillotson Avenue and W. Jackson Street, streets will be closed off around the area until around 4 a.m.
Muncie police and fire departments blocked off Tillotson between W. Jackson Street and W. Gilbert Street.
Muncie Fire Department Captain Larry Delk said 75 to 100 gallons were spilled before a Speedway employee hit the emergency shut-off switch.
“It’s a pretty good spill,” he said. “Anything over 25 gallons we have to report to [the Indiana Department of Environmental Management].”
Lieutenant Chris Spencer was the first responder on the scene. He said he thinks a driver ran into a pump and drove off. The road was closed because the fuel was "flowing down the road," he said.
“The immediate concern was block the intersections, determining what size of spill I have and keeping the people from driving through it,” he said.
Per standard procedure, Delk said the Muncie Sanitary District Bureau of Water Quality was called in because the gasoline had also reached the storm drains. He said they diverted the drains to keep any fuel-contaminated water from reaching the processing plant.
While Speedway’s environmental team was on the way with a truck to vacuum the gasoline, firefighters poured a quick-dry solution on the spill to prevent more gasoline from reaching the storm drains.
Delk said the department’s first priority was to prevent any flash fires from the vapors.
Spencer said the call came in just after 9 p.m.
“We came from the Tillotson station right down there, which is approximately six blocks away, so it didn’t take us but a minute and a half to get here,” he said.
Gasoline spills, Spencer said, are rare because of the emergency shut-off systems that are in place, but emergency responders are prepared for potential spills.
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