Tanker truck carrying fuel crashes, burns

McCLEARY, Wash. – A tanker truck carrying gasoline and diesel fuel crashed and burst into flames, closing a main route between Olympia and the Pacific coast for several hours Saturday.

The tanker, headed west carrying 7,000 gallons of gasoline and 3,000 gallons of diesel, crashed on State Route 8 just east of McCleary shortly before 6 a.m., the Washington State Patrol reported.

The driver, 32-year-old Jefferey Bliss, of Chehalis, was not seriously injured. He said he lost control of the rig when he swerved to avoid three deer, the patrol said. The tank containing the fuel rolled and caught fire.

Some of the fuel flowed into a wetland beside the highway, and workers were called in to clean up.

However, “one problem with this type of product, it also dissolves into the water column so the booms and the absorbent materials won’t collect that,” Bob Warren of state Department of Ecology told KOMO-TV.

One eastbound lane was expected to remain closed through Saturday night.