BY BEA LEWIS

Staff Writer

GILFORD — An oil truck rolled over on a sharp curve on Cumberland Road early Friday night, spilling some of its 2,800 gallon load of heating oil, just a quarter-mile from Lake Winnipesaukee.

The unidentified driver was not injured in the crash, and told officials he lost control when the air brakes failed on his diesel-powered truck.

Fire Chief Michael Mooney said the Fred Fuller Fuel Oil Company truck was heading northeast down a steep grade when the crash occurred shortly before 5 p.m.

The truck, which has a capacity of 3,000 gallons, had just been filled and had only made one 200-gallon delivery when the accident happened, according to Mooney. Officials said the exact amount of the spill wouldn’t be known until the damaged truck could be pumped out.

The driver had made the last delivery of the day and was heading back towards Route 11 when he lost control on a sharp left hand turn. The truck went off the side of the road, rolled onto its right side and then slid back across the road into a stand of trees. The cab of the truck was heavily damaged and at least two seams in the oil tank split allowing number 2 fuel oil to leak out, Mooney explained.

The driver was taken by private vehicle to Lakes Region General Hospital to be checked as a precautionary measure, authorities said.

Meanwhile, the Central New Hampshire and Lakes Region Haz-Mat Teams, made-up of specially trained firefighters from throughout the region, were called in to help contain the spill.

Haz-Mat team members dug a series of trenches in the woods downhill from the truck hoping to contain the leaking oil from reaching the state’s largest lake which is about a quarter mile away from the crash.

Team members also used absorbent pads and specially designed "booms" made of cotton wading contained in onion bag-like netting to help sop-up the oil.

The last trench was dug about 200 yards from the truck. No oil was discovered there, leading Mooney to believe it hadn’t spread beyond that point.

Fortunately the only house near the crash site was located up hill and should not be affected, officials added.

Two large wreckers had been called in and another oil truck was being used to pump out the remaining oil from the wrecked truck. The hatches, which are normally used to empty the tank, were inaccessible because the truck was on its side. So Mooney said the Haz-Mat teams were planning to use a special saw equipped with a low sparking blade to cut through the aluminum tank to allow them to pump the oil out.

Meanwhile, nylon slings were being placed around the body of the overturned truck in an effort to slowly upright it. Fortunately, Mooney said, fuel oil is relatively stable and is only prone to ignite when it is heated and then sprayed in a fine mist towards a flame.

But team members weren’t taking any chances and stood by with fire hoses charged with water as fellow members placed buckets beneath some areas of the truck to catch leaking fuel. Mooney estimated that the truck was leaking about a gallon of fuel oil an hour.

Accidents involving fuel oil delivery trucks are rare according to Mooney, who said that most occur during the winter months as a result of slick road conditions.

Several representatives of the N.H. Department of Environmental Services and Fire Marshal Don Bliss were on hand throughout the clean-up operation which Mooney predicted would last much of the night.

The owner of the truck, Mooney said, would be financially responsible for hiring an independent environmental clean-up company to complete the final remediation. Such a company will typically dig test wells to check for contamination and use specially designed vacuums to suck up the oil. They may also remove oil-soaked soils using an excavator. The contaminated soil is typically trucked away and burned in a special incinerator.

While the forecast was calling for rain Friday night, Mooney was hoping the wet weather would hold off. Had the spill occurred on a warm day with light wind much of the oil would have evaporated, he explained.

Haz-Mat team members were working in shifts to give them a break from the oil fumes that were making some men dizzy, Mooney said.