Crews clean up 2,000-gallon fuel spill in Baltimore’s harbor

BALTIMORE AP Crews were working Thursday to contain and clean up a -gallon -liter diesel fuel spill in Baltimore s harbor according to state and city executives Initially Johns Hopkins Hospital communicated a contained -gallon diesel fuel spill at its East Baltimore facility on Wednesday morning but a inadequate hours later the fire department responded to a call for a spill at a marina in Harbor East more than a mile away leaders disclosed The state city and U S Coast Guard began coordinating a response to the spill In an update around p m Hopkins released that gallons had spilled agents reported More than people worked through the night to make sure that the situation was under control and contained Gov Wes Moore reported at a news conference Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott stressed that there s no evidence to suggest that the spill was affecting drinking water in the area A boom was deployed on the water hurriedly and later crews began to skim the heating oil product off the water Fire Chief James Wallace announced They ve begun to flush the storm drain system to push the product to the harbor where they have skimmers to capture it he stated That effort will continue through the majority of the day on Thursday Authorities explained that the water appears red due to dye in the fuel Very speedy response solid coordination partnership with our state and federal support have put us into the position right now Wallace disclosed That s what s going to drive the remainder of the day and genuinely the coming days Executives expect the containment and cleanup efforts will disrupt traffic well into the day Thursday and they encouraged people to avoid the area