By Hiroko Sato
The Lowell Sun
GROTON, Mass. — The smell of soot often indicates there has been a fire in a building.
In the case of last week’s garage fire at Steve Sampson’s Groton home, the telltale sign is the odor of grease that now wafts across his yard.
That’s because the fire caused as much as 50 gallons of vegetable oil to leak, burn and possibly seep into the ground, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. In other words, the kitchen grease that the homeowner had meant to use to power up his “green” vehicles ended up fueling the flames, said Groton Fire Chief Joseph Bosselait.
Fire officials do not know whether the oil played a part in starting the fire. But for them, the incident is a reminder of a new frontier in firefighting: dealing with biofuel.
“It’s getting very common throughout the state,” Bosselait said of conversions of diesel vehicles to make them run on vegetable oil.
Most fires involving biofuel stem from processing of kitchen oil into bio diesel, and not from the storing of the fuel, according to the state Fire Marshal’s Office. There was no processing taking place on Sampson’s property. Nonetheless, biofuel is a fire hazard that can leave a mess behind if it catches a fire.
Contractors retained by the DEP are cleaning up the ground at 444 Nashua Road after 50 gallons of vegetable oil were released to the environment during a fire that broke out in the early-morning hours of June 2. According to Bosselait, a neighbor reported the fire at 2:36 a.m., and a patrol officer from the Pepperell Police Department rushed to the scene on the town border and woke up Sampson. As firefighters arrived, flames were visible from the back of the 3-car detached garage, where the roof eventually caved in.
No one was inside the garage and there were no injuries reported. There was also no damage to the house. It took 20 Groton firefighters and their counterparts from Pepperell and Dunstable about 90 minutes to put out the fire, according to Bosselait.
The Fire Marshal’s Office was involved in the investigation of the fire, but could not pinpoint the cause with certainty, Bosselait said. But Bosselait said Sampson told him during the fire that there were vegetable-oil drums at the back of the garage and that it was for his vehicles that were converted to run on kitchen grease. Sampson indicated he owned two such vehicles, Bosselait said.
“It’s obvious that there was oil because we had it all over the place,” Bosselait said. “The amount, that’s hard (to say).”
The amount was 50 gallons, Joseph Ferson, spokesman for the DEP, said yesterday. The quantity makes it a “reportable release,” which triggers cleanup enforcement, according to Ferson. The DEP has retained Corporate Environmental Advisors, a company based out of West Boylston, to do the cleanup at Sampson’s property. Sampson is responsible for all of the cleanup costs, Ferson said. An estimate was not immediately available, nor was a timetable for the cleanup.
Bio-diesel is usually a processed product that requires multiple chemicals to make, according to Jennifer Mieth, the public-information officer and manager of fire data and public education unit at the state Department of Fire Services. The oil released at Sampson’s property was real vegetable oil and not processed, Mieth said.
Ferson said the CEA crews already completed vacuuming the oil and the water from the fire suppression, which became mixed with the oil. The workers have also excavated the soil to remove oil that leaked during the fire and testing the remaining soil. They will be sampling the private well, as well, Ferson added. Multiple Dumpster-type containers with tarps covering the content could be seen placed across the front yard yesterday.
Sampson declined to comment on the fire.
Bosselait said vehicle conversion has grown popular in recent years amid the soaring gasoline prices and the movement to cut back on fuel consumption. But these environmentally minded vehicle owners may not necessarily know the regulations to go with production and storing of biofuel. Having five gallons or more of gasoline requires a permit from a local Fire Department, and there is a similar rule for bio-diesel, Mieth said.
Environmental officials were cleaning up and storing waste from 50 gallons of vegetable oil behind 444 Nashua Road in Groton yesterday after it was released to the environment during a garage fire there early Thursday. sun/hiroko sato Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.
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