WCPO
Evan Millward, Zac Pitts
August 3, 2015
FAIRFIELD, Ohio --
Lightning from Monday's storms sparked a fuel tank explosion along a busy Butler County road, sending a fireball skyward and leaving behind a 40-foot-wide crater in the earth.
Neighbors were evacuated for nearly a half-mile in every direction of the Gas Depot, on Dixie Highway at Winton Road, shortly after 6 p.m.
"The description of the property owner and the neighbor is they saw the lightning strike the ground, and immediately there was a fireball that they described higher than the trees," Fairfield Fire Chief Don Bennett said.
The State Fire Marshal's office said Tuesday morning the explosion was the first time on record that lightning struck an underground gas tank in Ohio. Officials from that office, along with staff from the Environmental Protection Agency, were expected to inspect the Gas Depot late Tuesday morning.
Bennett said the situation was bad and it might become an environmental issue.
Robert Tucker felt the explosion at his home blocks away.
"It just blasted me, that's all I can say," Tucker said. "Black smoke just rolled into the air."
Firefighters battled rain, hail, lightning and thunder to put out the flames using foam from Greater Cincinnati Haz Mat.
Gas Depot has three tanks, each holding about 10,000 gallons; only one exploded, Bennett said, but the others are considered compromised because of the blast. The Fairfield Fire Department assumed that each tank was about three-quarters full.
The greatest risk after the explosion were vapors that could come into contact with an open flame, Bennett said. Police remained on site overnight to monitor the situation.
Crews were expected to be on-site all day Tuesday for the start of clean up operations.
"I can tell you, in my 45-year career, I have never seen anything like this," Bennett said. "Underground storage tanks are put there to reduce the potential for fire."
The working theory, Bennett said, is that the explosion was in a diesel tank. However, he pointed out that's not consistent with witnesses' accounts of a fireball: Diesel usually isn't as volatile as gasoline unless it's very hot. Bennett said he expected to know more Tuesday.
Although the evacuation was called off by 7:20 p.m., some streets stayed closed for another hour so fire hoses could be removed from Dixie Highway.