By Amy Batista, Special Writer
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — Emergency personnel were removing pallets of various mixed corrosives at the Petro Truck Stop from a FedEx tractor-trailer that was leaking sodium hydroxide Saturday afternoon.
Police said the driver was carrying four different chemicals — phosphoric acid, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and inorganic phosphate.
There was a leaking 30-gallon drum of sodium hydroxide inside the FedEx tractor-trailer, Chief William Hartman, of Bordentown Fire District No. 2, said Sunday.
”It wasn’t gushing from the truck,” Chief Hartman said. “It was a slow drip.”
”It was strong enough to start eating the aluminum rims of the trailer,” said Chief Ken Hofbauer, of Westampton Emergency Services, which is part of the Burlington County Hazardous Materials Team, on Sunday. The county group also is known as the HAMMER-15 Haz-Mat team.
”Sodium hydroxide will dissolve aluminum in a heartbeat,” Chief Hofbauer added. “It doesn’t take much.”
It was reported to the Burlington County Communications Center that a 53-foot box truck was leaking an unknown material from the forward section of the truck, Chief Hofbauer said.
”Based on the amount of material leaking out of the truck we suspected that it was only one or two containers, and that’s what it was,” Chief Hofbauer said. “One 30-gallon drum that had lost its contents into the floor of the truck.”
The driver, Shane Benjamin of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, had picked up his load in Maine and was en route back to his home state, heading to Fort Pierce, and had stopped to rest overnight at the Petro Truck Stop in Bordentown Township, according to officials.
The driver noticed the leak the next morning, March 2, after coming out of the Petro station having taken a shower and eaten breakfast, Chief Hartman said.
”There is a wooden floor in the FedEx truck, which absorbed a lot of the material,” Chief Hartman said in reference to the sodium hydroxide. “There was a lot of that material pulled up inside of the trailer, and that’s what caused it to start dripping and leaking outside of the truck.”
Damage was noticeable to the truck tires and rims.
According to Chief Hartman, he estimated that approximately four gallons leaked onto the ground, and “that’s going pretty high.”
The leak was stopped by emergency responders applying speedy dry, which was provided by Petro Truck Stop, according to Chief Hartman.
There was a total of 41,000 pounds of mixed corrosive materials in 55-gallon drums, according to fire officials.
Back in Maine — when loading the barrels into the tractor-trailer — a forklift operator of FedEx nicked the barrel enough to cause the leakage without realizing that it had happened, according to officials.
”When the pallet was picked up, it was possible that the forklift operator may have caught the edge of the barrel and put a pinhole in it,” Chief Hartman said.
Chief Hartman noted conditions were in their favor that day, and the openness of the area helped.
”Most of the concerns were for in an enclosed area, and we didn’t have that,” Chief Hartman said. “We were in an open area. Everything was done as a precaution. No damage was done to the property.”
The driver and the company were cooperative in providing information and working with officials in mitigating the incident.
”The information was very well put forth from the chemical company,” Chief Hartman said. “The shipping papers as soon as I arrived were handed right to me.”
There were three different pages of multiple chemicals, all corrosives, according to Chief Hartman.
”The drums that they were shipped in were designed to carry the corrosives so that if one of them did fail, it wouldn’t cross-containment all the other ones,” Chief Hartman said.
”We had speedy dry probably about 6 inches wide and maybe 15 feet long,” Chief Hartman said of the area beneath the truck. “It always looks like it is more than what spills once it gets on the ground.”
Chief Hartman commended the employees at the Petro Truck Stop.
”They were very cooperative in the efforts there,” Chief Hartman added. “They gave us everything we needed.”
The firefighters also made sure the chemicals did not flow into any open drains.
”We just went around the drain out there to prevent any material from getting into the (system),” Chief Hartman said.
According to Bordentown Township Police Chief Frank Nucera on Sunday, it was a “very minor incident.”
”There was no collision; it was just a leak,” Chief Nucera added. “(It) presented no hazard for evacuation, and it was neutralized and cleaned up with vinegar.”
”We got out and checked the area and made sure nobody (was) injured,” said Capt. Norman Hand of the Bordentown Township Police Department.
”This is not something we do a police report on,” Capt. Hand said. “It’s not a police-related matter.”
Capt. Hand explained police were there to keep the scene safe for the emergency responders.
”We go out to make sure everybody is safe, and we clear the area for the haz mat people,” Capt. Hand added. “We keep a perimeter. We’re not trained to deal with this.”
He added, “Fortunately, we don’t get much of (these types of hazardous incidents).”
The call came in at approximately 11:40 a.m. March 2, and the scene was cleared around 3:15 p.m., according to Chief Hartman.
Bordentown Fire District No. 2, Mission Fire Company and Bordentown Township Emergency Medical Services responded to the call. The Burlington County Haz at Team, including Westampton Emergency Services, Eastampton Fire Rescue Department, and Chesterfield Township Fire Company, responded to assist.
According to Chief Hartman, he spoke to a representative from the company regarding the chemical that leaked and didn’t “see any issues with it.”
”The pH in it was maybe a couple times stronger than a can of coke,” Chief Hartman said. “It didn’t turn out to be that way, of course.”
The situation initially was confirmed by the Bordentown Fire District No. 2, the first to arrive on the scene.
Chief Hofbauer was responsible for the containment and cleanup of the chemical spill.
”It was leaking out of the forward section of the truck, basically eating through the floor,” Chief Hofbauer said. “That’s common for corrosive materials.”
According to Chief Hofbauer, the team tested the material to determine what they thought it was and compared it against the shipping manifest that was provided by the driver and confirmed the chemical was sodium hydroxide.
Burlington Country Haz-Mat made the determination that all the drums had to be removed to determine what was leaking, according to Chief Hartman.
Tractor-trailers were moved around to provide more space to work and to shield to the tractor-trailers that were already in place.
Local county health official Howard Roun determined the county haz mat team would need to be called, Chief Hartman stated.
According to Chief Hofbauer, a drum does not take too long to empty once it has been punctured.
”We set everything up the way it was suppose to be done,” Chief Hartman said. “The county haz mat people, in capsulated suits, actually removed the drum pallets and stacked them along side the trailer until we got to the one we found was empty, and we pulled the trade name of that one and (confirmed what it was).”
The Petro Truck Stop provided a forklift to be used to offload the pallets of chemicals.
It took three teams to remove the contents of the truck, according to Chief Hofbauer.
Chief Hartman said he spoke to the cleanup company, hired by FedEx, which was a nationwide hazardous material company.
”(The company representative) came out and explained everything, and the guy said if it is sodium hydroxide, make sure you don’t get it on your hands. It’s highly corrosive in its shipping state,” Chief Hartman said.
Chief Hartman stated a simple ingredient was used to mitigate the situation.
”What surprised me was they were going to use vinegar to neutralize it and eliminate the hazard,” Chief Hartman said.
Chief Hartman said that there were no injuries.
”Everything went according to plan,” Chief Hartman said. “Everything went very well. Everybody was happy with the outcome. All of the agencies worked very well together.”
He continued, “There was no environmental impact. Nothing got into the drains. Nothing got off the blacktop.”
And “Everybody went home,” the chief said.

