WEIGH SCALES - Seven large oil silos at the Duke Heating Oil property collapsed about 3 a.m. Thursday, apparently from floodwaters washing out their foundation.
The smell of heating oil was prevalent in the area Thursday morning, but the tanks apparently had little if any oil in them. The company filed for bankruptcy in October and is not believed to be operating.
The tanks did not appear to be ruptured, and there was no obvious accumulation of oil that he could see at the property.
Josh Lenker, 35, who lives a few hundred yards away at 293 Overlook Boulevard, said he heard "something like metal screeching or scraping" about 3 a.m. Thursday, but the noise didn't last long. In the morning, he put his 4-year-old son Owen on his shoulders and walked down the hill toward the property to survey the conditions of the flooding.
"I was mainly looking at the water; all of a sudden, that's when I realized I smelled oil and I looked over and all the tanks were on their side," he said.
Nearby Shamokin Creek and a feeder stream were overflowing from four days of heavy rains that have produced widespread flooding in Northumber-land County. It appears the raging water lifted the empty tanks and toppled them.
Lenker said the smell was "pretty strong" near the Duke property Thursday morning. He could smell the oil at his home, too, at that time.
'Hazardous risk'
A hazardous risk call was place for the incident at 1:45 p.m. Thursday.
"That area is still being monitored, but there is nothing leaking," said Stephen Reiner, acting director of public safety for Northumberland County. "We think the smell is coming from a little bit of overflow that might have been washed up with the water onto the roadway."
Duke Heating is located just a short distance off Route 61 a few miles north of Shamokin. It sits behind a used car lot that fronts the highway. Lenker can see Route 61 and Duke Oil from his house.
The feeder creek was flowing across Overlook Boulevard Road, which intersects with Route 61 near the oil company lot, since Wednesday, Lenker said. He and his neighbors could not get to their homes from the highway.