Bardstown Fire called to assist with 6,000-gallon hazmat spill at Heaven Hill
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, 3:23 p.m. UPDATED 5:15 P.M. — The Bardstown Fire Department is working to contain a 6,000 gallon spill of 190-proof spirits at Heaven Hill Distilleries, 1064 Loretto Road. The spill occurred outside at the rear of the building. In the call to dispatchers, Heaven Hill personnel advised they were contacting their hazmat team, and they were requesting the firefighters’ to help contain the spill and keep it from reaching the creek.
Firefighters working to contain the spill said the product was already running into the creek. Firefighters were trying to stop the flow into the creek with shovels and rakes, and they have requested earth-moving equipment from the City of Bardstown’s public works department and sand from the state highway department in an effort to contain the spill. These requests failed to produce help; the city public works said a funeral was going to prohibit their help, and a state road department employee said they only had a few tons of sand and were unable to bring what they had to the spill location. A city police officer reported he could smell the spill but did not see it yet in the water down along Gilkey Run Road.
The incident commander asked dispatchers to contact the county emergency management director and to alert state Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort. Firefighters were joined at the scene by the hazmat contractor employed by the distillery to cleanup the spill. The firefighters left the spill site about 5:30 Saturday evening.
The call to dispatch came in about 3 p.m.
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