Ottawa Fire Services are investigating a large oil spill in a creek in the city’s east end.
Fire Services Hazmat teams responded to a report of an unknown substance in a creek near Cyrville Road around 4p.m. Tuesday.
Crews deployed a boom to contain the spill in the area.
The Ministry of Environment was also called to assess the spill.
Saad Sifate, who works nearby, saw the spill before it was contained.
“It was kind of like if you were to see gasoline and water, like it looked like oil so blue and orange and pink and it was just floating on top of the water. It was like spots in the creek everywhere you looked really,” Sifate said.
Multiple firefighters were sent by foot along the creek to try and find the source of the spill. It brought them to another large spill in the area of 1540 Star Top Rd.
“We’ve got a large collection, about two and a half inches of oil in the creek here at this particular location, so it’s quite a significant spill that we’ve contained,” said Assistant Deputy Chief Sean Tracey with Ottawa Fire.
A number of other booms were used at the second location to contain the spill.
Officials wrapped up their efforts around 8p.m. when it turned dark. They left the booms inside the water to collect and contain more of the spill. Assistant Dep. Chief Tracey said they would be back early Wednesday to remove the substance.
“We will continue to work with the Ministry of Environment to try and identify a point source on this and to make sure that the clean-up effort is done to their satisfaction as well,” said Assistant Dep. Chief Tracey.
The source of this oil product spill is still unknown.
Ottawa Fire Services said no one is in danger.
