For at least the third time in four years, a company that specializes in raising sunken boats and marine construction had a truck belonging to its owner sink to the bottom of a local waterway.
Emergency crews were called to Manufacturers Road along the Tennessee River shortly before noon Tuesday. A crane attached to a truck parked on a small barge had slid into the river after the barge collapsed and began to sink, Chattanooga Fire Department spokeswoman Lindsey Rogers said. There were no injuries.
The truck leaked oil, triggering a response from environmental cleanup company HEPACO, the fire department, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Coast Guard and Chattanooga Public Works. Fire department personnel were unsure how much oil spilled but said it had been largely contained and wasn’t a threat to the public.
“Those contaminants – the oil and the machinery – we do not want that to spread any further into the beautiful riverfront here in Chattanooga,” Rogers said. “We have been working very hard to get that under control here.”
Staff photo by Erin O. Smith / The Chattanooga Fire Department and HEPACO work to place a hazmat boom into the Tennessee River at the scene where a truck and crane fell into the river in the North Shore Tuesday, August 27, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The truck was unoccupied at the time of the incident, and no injuries have been reported.Owner Tony Carter was on scene Tuesday but asked the fire department to make all media outlets leave the scene and did not wish to comment on the issue, according to a fire department official. A company representative hung up when a Times Free Press reporter called for information.