The leak, discovered yesterday afternoon at 98 Cushman Road, was completely controlled by 7 a.m. today.

Scarsdale Fire Captain Allan Gleeson said members of the Westchester County Hazardous Materials Response Team, commonly known as a Hazmat team, burned the propane off with a specialized device.

“They attach a hose to the tank and at the end of the hose is like a huge torch and what they do is, the vapor and the gas comes through the tube,” said Gleeson. “It goes right to the torch, and it burns straight up in the air.”

As the HAZMAT burned up the propane, Scarsdale firefighters set up what Gleeson called master stream devices, which emit a strong stream of fog to protect surrounding structures from the heat.

“It’s like a jet stream, but you can’t see through it,” said Gleeson.

He said there were no problems in tackling the leak, but firefighters did use copious amounts of water. The burning took place for about 11 hours, and water was flowing 95 percent of the time, he said.

“During the afternoon (yesterday), we turned off the electricity to the house and the homeowners vacated for the duration of the whole operation. They did not get back in the house until 4:30 or 5 o’clock this morning,” he said. “Before we let him back in, we took our monitors and checked to make sure there was no gas.”

Electricity was turned back on this morning. About 300 gallons of propane had recently been delivered.

Source: The Journal News