GRAFTON TOWNSHIP – An estimated 100 gallons of diesel fuel was spilled near Bear River in Grafton Notch State Park on Wednesday morning after a tractor-trailer accident on Route 26.
Oxford County Deputy Brian Landis said the rig’s driver, Sebastien Rosa, 30, of Coaticook, Quebec, was not injured in the 8:49 a.m. accident.
Landis said Rosa had delivered a load of lime pellets to MeadWestvaco in Rumford earlier, and was returning to Quebec in a 2000 Volvo tractor-trailer truck owned by L. Bretton Transport of Quebec.
Rosa was heading uphill when he crested a knoll, went into a dip and hit a patch of black ice while rounding a corner about a quarter-mile north of the Appalachian Trail crossing, Landis said.
Newry firefighters responded to the scene, which was 11 miles north of their Bear River Fire Station.
“About 100 gallons of diesel fuel spilled out of a ruptured fuel tank,” said Assistant Chief Bruce Pierce.
Firefighters placed a boom downstream in Bear River opposite the Moose Cave turnout “to trap any fuel that might come down,” he added.
About 12:30 p.m., a big-rig tow truck from M/T Pockets of Dixfield removed the tractor-trailer, which sustained an estimated $2,000 damage, Landis said.
By 1 p.m., firefighters were still on scene, waiting for a Maine Department of Environmental Protection crew to arrive.
In the meantime, firefighters called Bethel contractor D.A. Wilson to the scene. The contractor brought an excavator and a dump truck to remove snow saturated with diesel fuel, Newry Capt. Jim Bennett said.
Traffic was restricted to one lane.
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