Salt Lake City fire crews put out a fire at a gas station near the intersection of 1700 South and 900 West in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. Yukai Peng, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY –Investigators say an accident involving a propane tank is what sparked a large gas station fire that gutted a nearby convenience store and shut down a Salt Lake City intersection for hours.
The smoke from the fire at the Capital Fuel Quick Stop on 1700 South and 900 West could be seen for miles around the Salt Lake Valley. Fire fighters were able to see the smoke and the flames before they even arrived.
Salt Lake City Fire Captain Anthony Burton says, “Immediately, they requested what we call ‘working fire notifications.’ That gets us new and additional resources.”
The biggest concern for crews were the gas pumps, but Burton says they were able to keep the flames far enough away from those, and store employees took quick action once they saw the flames.
“The fuel was reportedly already emergency shut stopped by the employees, but, they had heavy fire in the adjacent building. Behind it, there are some tires and propane tanks,” Burton says.
No one was injured and despite the amount of damage the blaze caused, Burton says they’re actually lucky they didn’t see the kinds of problems they normally see during a gas station fire.
“Often times, we have an injury. Something happened in someone’s vehicle when they were fueling and they had a spark,” Burton says. “Especially when we have the fuels underground, that requires so much water and so much foam. Often times, we’ll even bring in assets from the airport. They’ve got three thousand gallons to five thousand gallons on some of those rigs.”
Burton says the convenience store appears to be a total loss.