Full tank of gas victim of early-season potholes

This season’s potholes have not been kind to Chester Davis.

On his way to work as a pharmicist in the Wellby Drug at Third and Union streets, Bangor, the Old Town resident lost the gas tank off his 1981 Ford pickup truck.

“Along about the time I got to the top of the hill on Union Street, the gas tank started dragging,” he said. “The potholes have been bad all winter. Coming across the Stillwater Bridge (Old Town) has been terrible and it has been all winter. And Union Street is not much better.”

He pulled into the parking lot at Third and Union streets losing gas from the tank which was jarred loose by repeated jolts from the potholes.

“And I’d just filled it up with gas too,” Davis said.

The Bangor Fire Department received word of a fuel spill at 8:26 a.m. and one engine responded to the scene, said Lt. William Leighton, the department’s spokesman.

Eighteen gallons were spilled, said Lt. Robert Bilotta. Firefighters spread drying compound, absorbent cloth and sand. The gasoline was contained in the parking lot, and none of it got into the city’s sewers, he said.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection ordered the glop to be stored until spring when it can be dried.