Kent Fire & Rescue Service and Kent Police were on the scene at Tesco petrol station at Westwood today (August 26) dealing with ‘a vapour leak from an underground fuel storage tank.’
Emergency services were asking people to avoid the area as a precautionary measure.
Firefighters were called to reports of the vapour leak at 4.33pm. Three fire engines attended along with Kent Police, South East Coast Ambulance service and engineers from the fuel company are en-route.
Crews wearing breathing apparatus used firefighting foam and misting from high-pressure hose reels to help prevent the vapour spreading. A 50 metre cordon was set up around the scene as a precaution.
The cordon was shortly reduced to just the perimeter of the filling station once the risk decreased, however it will remain until engineers can arrive to repair the leaking valve.
One person was treated by paramedics after breathing in fumes from the vapour.
*KFRS issued an update at 7pm. Initially the cause was listed as a leaking fuel tank but has now been verified that this was a vapour leak
