“A community effort”, city workers on Valor Oil fire

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Valor Oil catching fire March 27th was an unexpected event for all of Bowling Green, but a worse day was avoided thanks to a lot of teamwork.

News 40 spoke to three of people who responded to the fire that lit up Valor Oil, two of whom happened to play an instrumental part in containing the situation.

Talking to Mike Mitchum and John Carter who work for Bowling Green Parks & Rec, they were just in the right place at the right time when Matt Powell, Environmental Manager for Bowling Green’s Public Works Department, called. Carter and Mitchum said they were winding down their day when the fire broke out around 3:30 p.m.

The park workers said they watched the blaze from right across the street for a short while before Powell called and asked if they happen to have any equipment available to help with containment. Luckily enough, some dirt was already loaded up in their dump truck that day which was a needed component in containing a hazard release of chemicals from the facility. Carter said he was tasked with building a sort of reservoir for the run off from fighting the fire, attempting to keep the oil, gas and water mixture from reaching the drains.

News 40 spoke to Powell as well about the incident, he said his team along with the Bowling Green Fire Department and other first responders have had a lot of unfortunate but beneficial practice over recent years with unfortunate accidents occurring, and said due to a little luck and great communication, they avoided a potentially terrible event.