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

BALTIMORE — Crews were working Thursday morning to contain and clean up a 2,000-gallon diesel fuel spill in Baltimore’s harbor, according to state and city officials.

Initially, Johns Hopkins Hospital reported a contained 200-gallon diesel fuel spill at its East Baltimore facility on Wednesday morning, but a few hours later the fire department responded to a 911 call for a spill at a marina in Harbor East more than a mile away, officials said. The state, city and U.S. Coast Guard began coordinating a response to the spill. In an update around 7 p.m., Hopkins reported that 2,000 gallons had spilled, officials said.

More than 100 people worked through the night to make sure that the situation was under control and contained, Gov. Wes Moore said 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 quickly and later crews began to skim the heating oil product off the water, Fire Chief James Wallace said. They’ve begun to flush the storm drain system to push the product to the harbor where they have skimmers to capture it, he said. That effort will continue through the majority of the day on Thursday. Officials explained that the water appears red due to dye in the fuel.

“Very speedy response, solid coordination, partnership with our state and federal resources have put us into the position right now,” Wallace said. “That’s what’s going to drive the remainder of the day and actually the coming days.”

Officials expect the containment and cleanup efforts will disrupt traffic well into the day Thursday, and they encouraged people to avoid the area.