LARGE FUEL SPILL CLOSES HIGHWAY

TMC NEWS: DEVELOPING STORY

North Olmsted and North Ridgeville Fire Officials have had the westbound lanes of Route 10 blocked off from Route 480 to Route 83 since 3 p.m. due to a large fuel spill.

Lorain County Emergency Management Agency Director Tom Kelley, who was on site with his staff providing resource coordination, tells TMC NEWS that a truck hauling garbage from Cuyahoga County to Allied Waste (formerly BFI) in Carlisle Township struck a piece of metal on the highway puncturing a hole in his gas tank. The driver pulled over for a few moments then drove another half mile or so before stopping again, in the meantime spilling 90 to 100 gallons of fuel across a half mile of the highway covering burm to burm.

Director Kelley said that large amounts of absorbent have been put down to soak up the fuel in an attempt to get the road cleaned up and reopened.

The road is expected to be closed for several more hours.

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UPDATE: Clean up crews finished up their work on Route 10 just after midnight and reopened the westbound traffic after it had been closed for 9 hours.