Tanker crash update:
Last night presented a situation we hoped we would never have to deal with. Fortunately, we train and prepare each year for events just like this. The initial actions of first arriving crews proved critical and incredibly valuable to extinguish the fire, remove the driver, isolate the area, begin containment of a massive leak, establish Unified Command, and bring together a massive response to mitigate this incident and most importantly, protect lives and property.
This incident brought to task numerous agencies from local jurisdictions, Allegheny County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Special Thank you to the following agencies: Sothern Allegheny Valley Emergency Services, Etna Volunteer Fire Department, Undercliff Volunteer Fire Department, Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Department, Blawnox Volunteer Fire Department, Cherry City Volunteer Fire Department, Berkeley Hills Volunteer Fire Department, Millvale Volunteer Fire Department, Elfinwild Volunteer Fire Department, Fox Chapel Volunteer Fire Department, Baurstown Volunteer Fire Department, Parkview EMS, Shaler Hampton EMS, Foxwall EMS, Lower Valley EMS, Etna Police, Sharpsburg Police, Pennsylvania State Police, Etna Emergency Management, Sharpsburg Emergency Management, Etna Public Works, Sharpsburg Public Works, Allegheny County Hazardous Materials Team, Allegheny County Emergency Management and Emergency Services, Allegheny County 911, Pittsburgh River Rescue, Pittsburgh Hazardous Materials, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Agency, Ferra’s Towing, McCutchin Industrial Clean Up, Penn Tank Lines, and certainly our local and county elected officials who were engaged in helping us obtain resources and support the emergency effort.
The highway was able to be reopened around 3AM which was impressive work to make that happen. Clean up efforts will continue for the coming days along Pine creek in Etna.
A special thank you to Rising Crust Pizza in Etna who donated hundreds of dollars of food and drink to take care of our first responders. What an amazing local business.
Sincerely,
The Men and Women of
Etna Volunteer Fire Department
