WESTFIELD – A Russell Road gas station was enjoined from selling gas after the station’s fire suppression system failed with a car fully engulfed in flames at the gas pumps.
City police and firefighters were dispatched to the Circle K – Irving gas station and convenience store at 1400 Russell Road Friday morning for a report of a car fire.
The first officer arrived at the station seven minutes after the 9:39 a.m. alarm and found a Volkswagen Beetle fully involved in flames at the pumps.
Firefighters began arriving three minutes later and extinguished the fire.
Officer Jason Williams report that the operator of the car, a Blandford resident, said that she had seen smoke while driving eastbound on Route 20 and assumed that her car needed oil so she stopped at the gas station, parking at the pumps while she entered the store to buy oil.
The operator told police that when she exited the store she saw more smoke and saw the paint on the car’s hood was bubbling. Then, the car burst into flames.
The attendant at the station, police report, shut down the gas pumps and attempted to activate the fire suppression system but it failed.
After the firefighters extinguished the fire, Deputy Chief Patrick Egloff, the department’s fire prevention officer, ordered that the gas pumps remain out of service until the problem with the fire suppression system could be rectified.
A department spokesperson reported later in the day that an electrical system failure was found to have been the reason the suppression system did not activate and was repaired, allowing normal operations to resume at the gas station.
