And those fires were placed
under control within 40 minutes
of the original dispatch time.
We can confirm that the tanker driver
did die as a result of the incident.
One house located on Apple Ave.
suffered extensive damage which
displaced the occupants of the home.
Two other residents received
minor damage from the fire.
There are no reported injuries
to the occupants of the homes
or any Fire Rescue personnel.
The Maryland State Police are on the scene
handling the investigation of the accident.
The Maryland Department of the Environment,
the Frederick County Division of
Fire and rescues hazardous materials
team and the Frederick City
Department of Public Works are on
the scene and have confirmed that
the hazardous materials involved
in the incident are contained,
and they were contained prior
to reaching Carroll Creek.
I'm also glad to share that the foam
used in the firefighting efforts
were environmentally friendly and
did not include any PFAS material.
There is some foam residue that
is visible in Carroll Creek,
and we're working with the Maryland
Department of the Environment and
Frederick City Public Works to contain
the spread of that foam from the fire.
There is no risk to the public at this time.
On behalf of the Frederick County
Division of Fire Rescue Services,
I'd like to thank our local county
and state partners who worked
so hard to keep the residents of
Frederick City safe during this event.
I'd like to turn it over now to
Frederick City Mayor Michael O'Connell.
Thanks chief.
I appreciate it very much.
This is a scary day.
A rapidly moving incident with a
lot of moving parts, very complicated,
and the agencies that you're seeing
here today represent the best of
what this county does when faced with.
A tragedy and a challenge.
My thoughts are with the families
of the driver and the residents who
were affected by the fires that.
Followed this accident because of
the response of Frederick County
Division of Fire and Rescue Services,
the Frederick Police Department
Fire Marshals Office,
and all of our other first responders.
This was not a worse incident,
and as always,
I'm thankful for the quick,
quick coordination and the courage
our first responders who kept so many
people in our Community safe today.
I'm equally thankful to our Department
of Public Works that jumped into
action to prevent fuel spillage
and damage to Carroll Creek,
I would add.
Additionally,
there were rumors of some of
this material ending up in the
city sanitary sewer system,
and we had no breach of
the sanitary sewer system.
So nothing into Carol Creek,
nothing into the sewer system.
All in all,
what could have been a really
tragic incident was sidestep.
We will continue to.
Monitor the environmental effects of
this incident and the coming days and
weeks ahead working very closely with MDE.
We're appreciative of the partnership and
the cleanup efforts that will follow.
Just finally,
I just want to once again
note the joint response,
the clear communication that occurs
between the agencies that you see here,
everyone involved.
This effective working relationship
from the state to the county to the
city is really important and it's
why an incident like this isn't more
serious than it could have been.
When the initial reports went out,
I'm also happy to say that we've been
in contact with the governor's office,
with the office of Congressman Trone,
with Fort Dietrich,
all who have offered their support as we
continue to work through this effort.
And so that partnership that
we have exists from the federal
government all the way down.
So we appreciate very much you
all being here.
Guess we're ready to take any questions.
Good afternoon. That is
still under investigation,
ma'am, so we don't know if it was.
From the fire that was was going
on from the flammable liquid,
are we worried that the fumes
might have been toxic to inhale
again, this is still under investigation,
happened a little over 3 hours ago.
Zach Merchant from Channel 9,
DC what caused this explosion? That's
still under investigation as well. Sir,
you mentioned, or I should
say the Fire Chief mentioned,
that the fire has been contained.
Does that mean the fire is out?
Is it still burning?
What does that mean?
Yeah. So I can confirm that the fire
has been completely extinguished.
It was contained within 40 minutes of
the time of dispatch, but all fires
had been completely extinguished.
And to the earlier question,
we're still working to verify
the exact products in the truck,
but we do know that it was a
flammable liquid transport truck
that was involved in the accident.
So we're working with the,
the owner of the truck to
verify the contents of it,
but it was a flammable liquid.
Was the tanker the only vehicle
involved in the crash or were
there other vehicles? Yes, Sir.
What caused the tanker to to
veer off and? Strike that tree.
As the Lieutenant advised.
That's all still under investigation
by crash investigators.
So when I was at the scene
talking to people in Apple Ave.
there was crime scene tape that
went up and I overheard the trooper
saying it was a crime scene.
Can the trooper talk to in differentiate
what a crime scene in an accident scene?
Or if it was a crime scene,
would you suspect the crime was?
As far as that question,
this is an accident scene service
collision, OK, not a crime
scene at this time.
I don't know who the best
person to answer this would be.
The logistics of all of this.
I mean, y'all are fighting,
you know, flammable liquid,
your flight fighting brush fire,
you've got a traffic incident.
I mean, what?
What sort of a, you know,
what sort of a tick tock of sort
of y'all get in there and then
sort of deciding what to take?
I mean obviously I'm assuming
the fire is priority,
but can you just kind of walk through the,
the decision making,
what takes precedent and how
y'all had this sort of piece meal
this together to to get things
under control? Absolutely.
As the mayor said and as you
had mentioned in your question,
this was a very logistically taxing incident
with lots of priorities that the first
responders had to mitigate simultaneously.
The success of our response to
this incident is. Absolutely.
Based on the relationships we have with our
local and county public safety agencies,
the Frederick City Police,
the Frederick County Sheriff's Office,
the Frederick County Division
of Fire and Rescue Services,
Frederick City government and
their division of Public works,
Frederick County government
all work seamlessly.
And even as soon as the call was dispatched,
phone calls were being made to
enable the coordination of all of
those public safety response assets.
So it was very complex,
but all of those.
Agencies deployed rapidly to ensure
that this wasn't a much larger
catastrophe than it already was.
I'm sorry, you follow up. Ohh, sorry.
My follow-up was just, was it Windy did
not present any challenges,
I don't know, today's a windy day.
I was just curious if that made like
so the wind did not complicate
the incident at all.
The the largest complication
complicating factor of the
incident was the volume of
flammable fuels that were involved,
which created quite a
significant fire load.
I'm sorry. There
was a impact on traffic.
Are the roads still closed right now?
How big is the closure and
walk me through how long you
expect those closures to last.
So I do know that northbound Route 15
is still closed and will be closed for
an extended period of time while the
investigation and cleanup continues.
Coincidentally with that closure
of northbound Route 15 between
Patrick Street and 7th St.
We have some ancillary Frederick City
streets that are closed to assist with
both the clean up and the investigation.
We do not have a projected.
Time as to when they'll be open, reopened,
but we have incrementally been able
to release some traffic patterns back
to normal to relieve the gridlock.
Southbound is still moving freely. Yes, Sir.
Not as of yet. People watching, yeah.
So the question was are there any
federal agencies involved in the
response at this time and there
are no federal agencies involved
in the response at this time.
You need to contact the EPA when
something like this happens.
So our direct contact and notification is
the Maryland Department of the Environment,
they're representative is with us here and
then they make any additional contacts,
notifications beyond their office.
The environment,
it was mentioned that you
guys are gonna be monitoring
in the next few weeks or so.
What does that entail?
What is it the process in terms
of ensuring that no contamination
took place in the creeks and
rivers here in front of?
Yeah. So cleanup is going to take some time.
So we had a hydrocarbon or a, a,
a flammable liquid fire or fuel
leak that went across the ground.
So we have to make sure that we we
contain that which we have and now
it's a process of cleaning that up,
removing earth and and the such
that's contaminated and we do that.
With our partners in the Maryland
Department of the Environment,
their cleanup contractors,
and they work directly with the Frederick
County Health Department to ensure that
the health of the public is maintained.
Residents in the neighborhood told me
that there's a little bit of concern.
There's not a barrier between 15
and the homes. There's any plans.
Can anybody talk about some of
the safety measures that may be
taken in the future to ensure
that this doesn't happen again?
As I think everyone who is familiar
with Frederick knows the Route 15.
Area through the center of the city has
long been a transportation priority.
We're trying to get additional lanes.
We're we're pleased that there's
construction funding in the consolidated
transportation program for 2028 to bring
some additional lanes to this area.
We think that's both.
A necessity for travel,
but it will also improve
safety in that corridor.
Part of that conversation is
the presence of sound barriers.
The residents along that area
certainly would like to see that
and that's certainly something
that will continue to advocate for.
We want the best,
safest traffic through the city of
Frederick that we we can possibly get.
So this was the equivalent of a second
alarm response for the fire service.
It's safe to say that we had over 100
Fire Rescue responders from not only
Frederick County, but from Carol,
Montgomery and Washington counties
respond to our to assist in the response.
Damage to one home that
ended up displacing a family.
Can you tell us about the extent
of that damage and then tell us
about what you foresee about the
homes that are next to that home?
Yeah, so one house on Apple Ave.
did sustain what we would
call substantial damage.
It is not currently livable and we're
working with the displaced occupants
to make sure they're appropriately
assisted and temporary housing.
So I really can't go into much more
depth other than that occupancy
is no longer livable at this time,
the two adjoining. Properties.
Received what I would call
superficial damage from the heat.
Things like melted siding and the such.
So one house was damaged
beyond livability and two,
sustained superficial damage.
Is there any evacuations of that
neighborhood or did you get ahold of them?
So the incident evolved so quickly?
The immediate neighborhood self
evacuated and the firefighters were able
to go in and contain the fire before
additional evacuations were needed,
so there were no structured
evacuations during the event.
We're going to take like
three more questions.
This should be an easy one, I hope.
Just rewind to the beginning of
this incident quickly to make
sure we're all on the same page.
You know, the trooper kindly told
us that the cause of the explosion
is still under investigation.
I think someone up here mentioned,
and it was confirmed at the podium
that this tanker struck a tree.
How did this?
Was there a collision with another vehicle?
What does the scene tell you at
this point about how it arrived
at that point again, Sir,
that that part is still
under investigation.
Our crash team is out there conducting
their investigation and there will be
a press release later this evening
from our media of communications.
Yes, Sir. This was a crash, yes.
Just dialing in on the point
of what was in the vehicle,
we we heard reports that it might
have been a gasoline. Truck I mean.
Can you square the circle
of? We're still investigating what
was in the truck with determining
the harm or potential harm or lack
thereof for the community at large.
Yeah, so we believe that the the
products involved were commonly
carried flammable liquids in the
line of gasoline and diesel fuel.
We have not confirmed the actual quantity.
Yet, so that's why we were
not being very specific,
but we do not believe there's any
harm or concern to the general public
at this time based on that release.
For getting into the ground and
correct, correct, our hazardous
materials team has been monitoring
the air in the area of the the
actual accident and that we've been
working with our partners in with the
Maryland Department of the Environment
to isolate the area where there's
ground saturation of the fuel and
we'll be working to clean that up.
Gets the response with like
hazmat suits versus fire suits.
Can you tell us? What?
Why that response is different or?
You know how that varies just from
the casual observer standpoint,
yes. So the fire rescues hazardous
materials team response frequently
as part of our Fire Rescue response
to various types of emergencies.
The Protect the personal protective
equipment that they wear really
depends on the hazards that they face.
And in an event like this
they would wear flammable or.
Protective equipment that would would
protect them from thermal insult,
no different than their
structural firefighting gear.
So even though we say it's the hazardous
materials team that's responding,
they're coming from a fire station
and this event would wear a
protective equipment that would
protect them from thermal insult.
We're having this conversation
just a few weeks after what
happened in East Palestine.
OH, I think it's probably on
everybody's minds in this room.
I'd love to ask you this question.
And also the mayor perhaps, but.
It's fast moving seeing
things are coming in quickly.
But did that ever cross your mind?
Is what happened in Ohio cross your mind,
especially as this response unfolded,
so not specifically,
I mean we when we're moving to these
incidents that are rapidly evolving,
we're thinking about all of the
possible hazards that we could face
from a fire response standpoint,
from a chemical involvement standpoint.
So we approach these events and
the response very systematically
and very strategically at the
very beginning of the incident,
it's very fast moving and we're
reactive to immediate life safety needs.
As those events start to calm down or
slow down and we get the fires contained,
we back up and start to work on
some of the secondary concerns.
Like the ground contamination.
So we're working through those issues
now with our response partners.
But no, at at the immediate onset of
this call our minds go to life safety
protecting people and we really don't
have a whole lot of time to think about
other events in the nation at the time.
This is your community here.
I know that you're not
responding immediately like
the first responders are.
Did it ever cross your mind?
I think, my God,
this looks like so we've seen.
It it it's difficult for me
because I'm an optimist by nature.
So when when I hear about any
bad incident that's occurring,
my first thought is to go to all of
the things that seem like the most
normal on an accident on Route 15,
a house fire that might have,
you know, taken a turn.
I don't think about the kinds of
things that happened in East Palestine.
OH, I'm kind of glad that my
mind doesn't work that way.
But I also understand that in
the Community these are rapidly
evolving incidents.
It's easy for the mind to race we.
Knew that these were going to
be questions that we were going
to see here today.
I'm just grateful that this looks like.
A fairly routine.
Kind of accident that it could occur
on any highway anywhere in America
and that this is not anything
more more challenging than that.
You hope every day when you lead
a community that you will never
be faced with dealing with those
kinds of incidents.
And I'm grateful once again for the
quick response of all the first responders,
everybody who's here in the room who.
Makes the assumption when they
respond to this call that it will be
the worst thing they ever see and
we're always happy when it's not
mayor real quick. Drinking
water comes city of Frederick.
Does it come from Carroll Creek?
No. OK, no. We have a number of drinking
water sources and those are all,
I would say, well protected.
And so there is virtually 0 opportunity
for an incident like this occurring
where it did to ever have an impact on
the city's drinking water. Thank you.
We're gonna ask the community leaders
to get back to work and start continue
to handle the the situation at hand.
We appreciate everybody coming out.
If there's any further update
that warrants a press conference
or follow up press conference,
I'll be sure to make sure that everybody
here knows any updates and stuff like that.
Press releases as Lieutenant Johnson said,
Maryland State Police will probably
have a press release out later
today and Frederick County Fire and
Rescue will follow up with their
press release to our news agencies.
So thank you for coming out today.