A lot of scotch went to waste this week when a tractor-trailer carrying a tank of 6,000 gallons overturned on a New Jersey road before the liquor caught fire, according to the New York Daily News.
"For us, it is unusual," Frank DellaPietro, an official of the Fords Fire Company, said. "We usually deal with gasoline tankers on the Turnpike, but to get a whisky tanker turning over in the middle of a residential neighborhood is uncommon."
There were no injuries, though a Cadillac became victim to the fire, as the blazing liquor set it aflame before it flowed into a gutter.
"It's a flammable liquid," DellaPietro said, speaking of the difference between scotch and gasoline. "Once you put foam on it" it's out, he said of the extinguishing process.
The driver, an employee of the hauling company B-Line Trucking in Newark, New Jersey, was taken to Raritan Bay Medical Center, Perth Amboy Division, as a precaution.
The truck tipped over while making a turn at the corner of King George and Egan Avenues at approximately 9 a.m. on Tuesday, according to officials. The truck clipped a telephone pole and then hit a car, causing the truck to flip its load.
"There's a relief valve on top of the tank," DellaPietro said, discussing how the liquor caught fire. "When the pressure builds up, it releases it.
"Some of the product came out of that hatch," he continued. "When it flipped over, it made sparks on the ground and that's how it ignited."
The valve then closed, cutting off the flow of alcohol. It took 10 minutes for the fire to be extinguished, though the firehouse is located just down the street, and eight hours to remove all the vehicles. Officials said the fire was never a major threat to the neighborhood.
Woodbridge Township officials don't know what brand of scotch the tanker was carrying.
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