Fire crews battle oil blaze in Barkeyville
Multiple trucks caught fire early Tuesday morning at an oil company in Barkeyville, Venango County.
The fire reportedly began around 3:45 a.m. at the Heath Oil Company along Route 8, just north of the Butler County border. Multiple Butler County crews were called to assist around 4:16 a.m.
While Clintonville Volunteer Fire Department handled local units, fire Chief Ryan Hanchosky, of the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Co., helped organize those departments responding from Butler County.
“When we got there, we had heavy fire with multiple explosions in place,” Hanchosky said.
Hanchosky said Slippery Rock’s tower truck helped battle the flames while also simultaneously cooling other tanks that were filled with ethanol. He said the initial tank-style trailers that exploded dropped ethanol on the ground, which made fighting the fire initially difficult.
“If you hit it with water, it just made the fire grow,” Hanchosky said. “Once we were able to get the foam trailer up and running, we were able to knock a lot of the fire down.”
After the foam trailer was then set up, supplying an answer to the ethanol complication, firefighters supported the foam trailer by drawing countless gallons of water to the scene.
Suppression using regular water was done largely through nearby hydrants supplied by a local Barkeyville water tower. To supply the foam trailer, crews drew water from a different site on Stevenson Road.
“Those foam trailers need a lot of water,” Hanchosky said.
Hanchosky applauded the efforts of Brayden Rea, Clintonville assistant fire chief, who managed the scene overall.
“Everything went really smoothly considering how large of a scale this was,” he said.
In addition to Slippery Rock, fire departments from Harrisville, Marion, Portersville, Prospect, Bruin, North Washington, Eau Claire, Chicora, Unionville and Butler Township also responded to the scene, many with tanker trucks able to transport water.
Route 8 was shut down between I-80 and Route 208 until the fire was under control around 6:30 a.m.
“Obviously, water was our biggest concern,“ Hanchosky said. “We made sure we had backup plans.”
As the flames dwindled, the damage was apparent from many photographs shared through social media.
Photographs by the Prospect Borough-Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Department showed the tanker trucks involved. Rubber tires had completely melted away, but the tanks themselves also appeared melted, warped and torn, likely from the explosions.
According to authorities, two firefighters were evaluated on the scene but did not require transport for further treatment. Neither firefighter was from a Butler County department.
