Two commercial vehicles, a cube van and a pickup truck had been targeted by gas thieves on Tuesday morning, at 7:02 a.m on Kingsview Boulevard SE.

“We realize that with the price of fuel going up the cost of living going up that, unfortunately, some of these things could start to happen. No sooner than we thought that thought, this incident did occur,” said Deputy Chief Garth Rabel. 

Approximately 80 litres of gasoline remaining in the fuel tanks spilled onto the paved parking area where the incident occurred. 

“These [types of incidents] are always challenging for us, especially since the incident probably happened much earlier,” Deputy Chief Rabel said. “It was very clear, there [was] fuel on the ground, there [was] residual fuel in the tanks and the tanks had clearly been breached, with a drill bit or a sharp object.” 

Prior to the arrival of the fire department, some of the fuel had made its way into a nearby storm sewer catch basin. 

“There was still some ice within that catch basin, but there's always a threat that when it makes its way into a storm sewer system, if we have a rain event or a quick thaw, then that'll just speed up moving through the system and into our natural waterways. In this case, the team mitigated that quite quickly.” 

Firefighters applied absorbent material directly on the spill and used absorbent socks and pads to mitigate further contamination to the storm system. City of Airdrie Public Works personnel monitored the underground stormwater system to determine how much of their infrastructure had been affected.

“The Airdrie Fire Department, we’re well trained and well equipped to manage the identification, isolation, and initial mitigation, but then when it gets into the system, where now pipes up to be cleaned with water, we bring in our contracted response team,” Rabel said. “We work with [the team] to stop the flow, clean the infrastructure, and suck all that contaminated hydrocarbon out.” 

The Rapid Response HazMat team was on scene to assist with the cleaning of infrastructure and the removal and disposal of all contaminated material that was collected.  There were no negative impacts on the environment. 

“Be aware that if you did recently just fill up your tank, and you do have the opportunity to secure your vehicle in your garage; that would be a good thing to do as well.  I think we just have to look out for each other and, if you see anything suspicious at all, by all means, activate 911 and request police assistance,” Deputy Rabel concluded. 

RCMP was on the scene to assist with the investigation of this incident. There were no injuries to report. 

 

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