A section of Highway 17 in eastern Ontario reopened late Thursday afternoon after a tanker truck carrying jet fuel to Garrison Petawawa caught fire on Wednesday.
The truck caught fire at around 8:30 p.m. on the highway near White Water Road, southeast of Pembroke. The highway was closed in both directions until around 1:10 p.m. Thursday when eastbound traffic resumed. The westbound side of the highway reopened at around 5:30 p.m.
Laurentian Valley Township Fire Chief Tim Sutcliffe told CTV News Ottawa that firefighters responded along with crews from Garrison Petawawa.
“It was a big ball of fire, but it had vented, which was the main thing... obviously you’re not going to stop that from burning, but it started to go on up into the bush beside it. And then that was our first main thing, is get that put out,” Sutcliffe said.
“The truck itself, it was just a case of containing it just so that nothing would spread anymore.”
Crews arrived within three to four minutes of being called, Sutcliffe said, and spent nearly 12 hours at the scene.
The fire wasn’t out until about 7 a.m. Thursday, as crews had to wait for the fuel to burn off before it could be completely extinguished.
“You just basically surround it and let it burn and make sure it doesn’t go anywhere. There was no life or limb to worry about. So, I mean, you weren’t going to save the truck,” Sutcliffe said.
No one was reported hurt.
Sutcliffe said crews chose not to use a chemical suppressant to deal with the fire, as it would have led to a much more difficult clean-up afterwards.
“We would have used [chemical suppressant], but to use it at this, when there’s nothing to save, was just not worth it. It would cause too much environmental problems,” he said.
The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario was called to the scene to make repairs to the highway.
Capt. Jennie MacCosham, public affairs officer with the Canadian Special Operations Forces Commend, says the Canadian Forces Base Petawawa spill response team was deployed to help manage run-off of the fuel and water mixture, and the Department of National Defence will be responsible for remediation.
MacCosham says the Ontario Spills Action Center is also assessing the site and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire.