Police probe of petrol spillage

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33966, 6 October 1975, Page 16

Police probe of petrol spillage

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, October 5. The police are investigating a petrol spillage in Otahuhu at the week-end which led to dozens of families being moved out of the danger area.

About 200 gallons of petrol spilled into drains near the Highway Service Station on Great South Road. Otahuhu, on Saturday afternoon.

The spillage occurred while a petrol tanker was filling underground storage tanks. It is believed that tne tanker driver’s attention was momentarily diverted while the storage tanks were being filled. The Otahuhu Fire Brigade was alerted as the petrol seeped into stormwater drains and flowed towards the Tamaki Estuary. A “yellow” emergency

was declared, and the police were called in to supervise the evacuation of houses along the route down which the petrol was flowing, while firemen flushed the drains with thousands of gallons of water.

The site of the spillage and nearby areas were smothered in foam. Most of the people moved to safety lived in houses near a creek on the banks of the Tamaki Estuary, where the accumulation of petrol was greatest. Firemen [filled hoses with compressed air and used them as floating booms to stop the petrol i from spreading across the estuary. It was the first time this technique has been used in New Zealand, and firemen believe it might be useful as a measure to confine oil and petrol spillages in harbours.

Shortly after nightfall, when the main danger had passed, residents were allowed back in their homes after being warned by the police not to light gas-stoves or burn rubbish.

Senior-Sergeant D. C. Smith, of the Otahuhu police, said today that the public had been most co-operative. “It only needed someone to toss a match and that would have been it,” he said.

Firemen stood by all Saturday night and did not leave the scene of the spillage until this morning.