Hazardous Materials Incident in Guymon Friday Multiple emergency calls from the Guymon downtown area reporting a large gas leak started the weekend off for the Guymon Fire Department and other agencies, according to a release from GFD. Late Friday afternoon at 5:30pm, multiple reports of gas leaks all over downtown began coming into 911 and the Guymon Fire Department. Moments after the calls began, some citizens and the Guymon Police Department found the cause of the horrible smell of natural gas. “What had occurred is a vehicle transporting the chemical Mercaptan had suddenly stopped at the traffic light at Hwy 54 and S. Main street with a valve open and causing an estimated 1-3 gallons of the product to spill onto the roadway,” said Assistant Fire Chief Grant Wadley. The vehicle driver was unaware of the spill and continued on driving. Guymon Fire Department Haz Mat team was called to the scene to deal with the product and the situation. Identification of the product was quickly made and actions to mitigate the spill were done. Mercaptan is a chemical product that companies use during production of natural gas. Since true natural gas is odorless, Mercaptan is added at small amounts to form the rotten-egg smell so that humans can detect it by smell at very low levels. “This spill could be noticed by anyone in the downtown area or anywhere in Guymon south of the incident site,” Wadley stated. The spill was handled as appropriate bu HazMat Responders and overseen by State DEQ representative who was also at the scene. This small spill with a large smell took many agencies working together such as Guymon Police, Texas County Sheriff, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Guymon Utilities Department and Street Department, Texas County Emergency Management, ODOT, and the Fire Department HazMat team. The one block of Main street between Hwy 54 and 1st street was blocked off by Law Enforcement until the area was cleaned. With this spill no evacuations were ever indicated, but the strong gas smell in the downtown area and across town remained for several hours into the evening.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 16:26:09 +0000
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