Electrical Fire Hits Shell Gas Station

By Andrew Gorosko

Just after 7 am on Sunday, firefighters from all five local volunteer fire companies were alerted of a fire at Newtown Shell Service at 67 Church Hill Road.

Newtown Hook & Ladder and Sandy Hook firefighters went to the scene. Hawleyville firefighters stood by.

On arriving at the gas station at the corner of Church Hill Road and Edmond Road, firefighters learned that the fire did not involve the gasoline that the gas station sells, but had occurred in the basement of the service station building. There were no injuries. More than 25 firefighters responded.

Newtown Hook & Ladder 2nd Assistant Chief Dave Ober, who was incident commander, said the gas station attendants were opening the station at about 7 am, when they smelled smoke. They then quickly shut off the gas pumps and called 911 to alert firefighters of the problem, he said.

The smoke was coming from the station’s basement. Firefighters put a hose line down into the basement to extinguish the fire, Asst Chief Ober said. They used a thermal-imaging camera to find the smoldering fire within the confines of the smoke-laden basement, he said.

“It was an aggressive approach,” Assistant Chief Ober said of firefighters’ tactics in finding and extinguishing the blaze.

Firefighters then used high-powered fans to exhaust copious smoke from the building.  

Fire Marshal Bill Halstead said the blaze appears to have started when an electrical extension cord in use in the basement short-circuited and then ignited. That caused adjacent flammable objects including paperwork, cardboard, and plastic items to catch fire and generate heavy smoke, he said.

The basement was smoke-blackened, but there was no structural damage, he said.

Mr Halstead said fire-related losses could exceed $50,000. The premises are insured.

During the fire, a section of nearby Church Hill Road was closed to traffic for less than an hour. Firefighters remained at the scene for about three hours.

The Shell station was still closed for business early Thursday morning.

Ed Knapik, a sanitarian with the town health department, said that due to smoke damage, the gas station was ordered to discard all food that it had on hand, except for food that was stored in coolers. Also, the premises must be thoroughly cleaned before the station can reopen for business, he said.