The Fire Department got a call about an odor of gas about 10:45 last night and found a leak in an gasoline transmission line under the township maintenance garage at 105 Maple St, according to Chief Mike Wetherbee.
About 75 people were evacuated from Brookside Park Mobile Home Park.
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Gasoline had pooled in the parking lot and gotten into a nearby waterway, the White Ditch, Wetherbee said.
Crews built dams in the ditch to contain the gasoline and had the spill contained about an hour and a half after it started, Wetherbee said.
“We’re very confident that we held it in check,” Wetherbeen said.
Tom Kelley, Lorain County Emergency Management Agency director, said it is estimated that 125,000 gallons of gasoline leaked.
The cleanup is expected to take a couple days. Most of the residents who were forced out of their homes are staying with relatives, and others are taking advantage of a Red Cross shelter that has opened up in the Wellington Village Hall.
Sunoco Logistics, the company that owns the pipeline, is handling the cleanup with the assistance of firefighters and under the watch of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Lorain County Emergency Management Agency and a Lorain County hazardous materials squad responded to the scene along with firefighters from Oberlin, Spencer, LaGrange and Elyria.
Wetherbee said no one was hurt due to the leak. He said the underground gasoline transmission line is used to transport gasoline between holding facilities, not to deliver it to gas stations.
Read Saturday’s Chronicle for more on this story.
Tags: BREAKING
