Gas left in pipeline sparks fire Firefighter says damage to environment minimal

BREWER – Residual gasoline in a discontinued stretch of pipeline near the Penobscot River caught fire Thursday, shooting flames 10 to 15 feet in the air and creating a 30- to 40-foot plume of thick black smoke that could be seen for miles around.

Because most of the gasoline evaporated or burned off, damage to the environment was minimal, Lt. Dennis Tinkham of the Brewer Fire Department said Thursday.

A Department of Environmental Protection representative who visited the scene Thursday morning told city fire officials that no fuel had saturated the ground and too little made its way into the river to warrant an environmental cleanup, Tinkham said.

According to Tinkham, the pipeline once carried gasoline to Irving Oil Corp.’s tanks in the Maple Street area. The line, discontinued several years ago, runs from the shore along a metal footbridge to a small island the Dead River Oil Co. owns in the Penobscot River.

Though the bulk of the pipeline had been removed in previous years, the company recently hired Pinkham & Pinkham Welding Inc. of Kenduskeag to remove the section that remained closest to the river.

City Manager Stephen Bost and Economic Development Director Drew Sachs said Thursday that Irving recently agreed to donate the bridge to the city as part of the community’s riverfront revival effort. Dead River has agreed to contribute the island behind its offices on South Main Street.

Tinkham said the contractors were not to blame for the fire.

“It was completely accidental,” he said.

According to Tinkham, the contractors were working to remove the pipeline when the fire began. He said that the workers had raised the island end of the pipeline and set it upon a jack to prevent any gasoline it might still contain from seeping out.

When the other end of the line was lifted, however, the movement of leftover gasoline caused the line to shift and fall off the jack. Tinkham said that metal piping might have caused a spark as it fell, but that the fire could have started from a static source in Thursday’s hot weather. He said no welding equipment was in use at the time.

Tinkham said that firefighters let some of the gas burn off and used foam to extinguish the fire and that no one was injured in the incident.