Tanker truck rollover clean up is slow

(Update)

Harvester Road in Burlington was closed between Appleby and Burloak for most of the day. But some lanes could be open now.

A tanker truck overturned in the industrial area around 8:30 Monday night. The driver was treated for minor injuries. But the bigger problem for emergency crews was the time it took to unload 35-thousand litres of fuel and to assemble a crew to carefully upright the truck without creating any sparks. There was a small fissure in the truck tank and some fuel leaked into the catch basin. A small amount may have made its way down to Sheldon Creek. But it was cleaned up and city officials say there is no further environmental concern.

Burlington Fire Platoon Chief Craig Slack: “It was a very long process to ensure safety for everyone involved. We also want to eliminate environmental damage. So we had to offload all the fuel on the vehicle and upright the tanker. It took some time to gather the resources to do that.”

The lane on Harvester that is closest to the catchbasin will remain closed to traffic Wednesday while cleanup continues. Halton police haven’t determined how the truck overturned or whether any charges will be laid.