Fuel Truck Spills More Than 1,000 Gallons of Fuel in North Idaho
POWELL, Idaho (KLIX)-HazMat crews spent the weekend cleaning up roughly 1,200 gallons of fuel after a semi-truck overturned in north Idaho trapping the driver early Friday morning.
According to Idaho State Police, the crash happened at around 6:24 a.m. on U.S. Highway 12 near Powell, Idaho when 66-year-old Gary Claussen of Missoula, Montana, went off the road for an unknown reason. ISP says the tanker trailer became disconnected from the truck and ruptured spilling gasoline into a drainage ditch.
Claussen was trapped inside the truck until emergency crews were able to rescue him. He was taken to a Montana hospital for minor injuries. Crews shut down the highway and worked to contain the spill in the ditch, which feeds into a reservoir that connects to the Lochsa River.
The Department of Environmental Quality, Environmental Protection Agency along with the Nez Perce Tribe were informed of the situation. Clean up crews are expected to remain on scene for about a week while the investigation continues.