An explosion at the Siloam Springs Creative Alliance building on Monday shut down South Lincoln Street for about 30 minutes and left one person with minor injuries.
The explosion occurred at the 2000 block of South Lincoln around 11:45 a.m. when a private contractor was removing a storage tank that contained fuel located next to the building, according to Adam Rusk, Siloam Springs Fire Department battalion chief. The building used to be a gas station, he said.
"The contractor was in the process of removing the bulk storage tank," Rusk said. "In the process of removing the tank they cut the line in order to make it useless."
Rusk said the contractor thought that he had removed all of the gas from the tank and that the tank's gauges were registering at zero.
The contractor started to cut the line with what Rusk referred to as a "hot saw," when the tank exploded, Rusk said. One person received minor injuries from the explosion, he said. That person was not transported to the hospital by ambulance, although he did go to the hospital on his own later, he said. No other injuries were reported.
The firefighters did not evacuate the area, according to Rusk, but instead cleared the former gas station of all personnel. The police closed down part of South Lincoln for about 30 minutes to ensure that there were no other potential dangers, he said.
Rusk said that he spoke to someone from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and was told that the contractor did everything "by the book." Rusk did not have the name of the ADEQ personnel that he spoke to at press time.
General News on 10/30/2019