On the morning of December 13, 2015, EPA was notified by the manager of the Owens-Corning Asphalt terminal and the National Response Center,that a tanker truck had lost control and run off St. Helen’s Highway into some parked railroad tank cars full of Owens-Corning owned asphalt. Early reports indicated several railroad tank cars were on fire and spilling oil. Initially, there was a very large fire and smoke plume, but the fire was quickly extinguished by Portland International Airport (PDX) Fire. EPA OSC Franklin responded to the scene to assess the site. Responding agencies included Portland Fire and Hazmat, Vancouver Fire/Hazmat, PDX Airport Fire, BNSF Railway, Portland & Western Railway, ODOT, USCG, and response contractors. Several Media outlets were already on scene.
An assessment by fire teams and the BNSF railway showed that only the tanker truck had caught fire and exploded, and although 7 railcars were impacted by the truck accident and fire, none were leaking oil, none were on fire, and none had derailed. It is believed that most of the fuel from the tanker truck burned up in the incident. Further, no fuels or oil from the tanker truck was found to have flowed toward the Willamette River. An assessment of the Willamette River was also conducted by response OSROs, and no oil was found to have discharged to the river.
