FARMINGTON — About 40 gallons of fuel oil were cleaned up from a catch basin in the Mt. Blue Middle School courtyard Tuesday afternoon, said Glen Wall from the Department of Environmental Protection.

An alarm failed when an oil tank was overfilled and fuel flowed from an overflow pipe, he said.

Students at Mt. Blue Middle School were evacuated to the sports fields behind the school Tuesday at about 12:30 p.m. after Number 2 fuel oil gushed from a courtyard pipe as a local oil dealer made a delivery.

About 350 students, their teachers and school personnel left the building due to the odor from the courtyard located between the older and newer portions of the Middle Street school.

It’s an odd system, Wall said. The fuel tank is filled from the front of the school, but the tank and vent are in the back. An electric alarm failed to alert the delivery person. The oil came out the vent, sprayed the side of the building, lawn and crushed rock, he said.

Members of Farmington Fire and Rescue responded and called for the town to bring loads of sand, but Chief Terry Bell didn’t think it would be used.

A portion of the brick wall on one side of the school gym was covered in fuel from the overflow as a C.N. Brown truck delivered about 1,500 gallons of fuel to the school.

Most of the oil went into the tank, David Leavitt, director of support services, said at the scene.

A student at the school spotted the fuel gushing from a pipe and alerted school officials, Superintendent Michael Cormier said. They decided to keep the students at the school and send them home on the usual bus run which was only about an hour away, he said.

The Department of Environmental Protection was then alerted to the incident and Wall came from Augusta.

A crew from Environmental Projects Inc. (EPI Services) in Auburn came to clean up the fuel from the courtyard. The crushed rock will be removed and the area cleaned with detergent, Wall said.

Tony Couture of Precision Tanks Inc. from Jay was testing the alarm system to see why the alarm didn’t work.

He expected the school would be open on Wednesday. If they keep the windows in the courtyard closed, the odor should be fine. It may take a few days to totally dissipate, he said.

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