Above: A house and propane tank (white, center of photo) that were hit by a BMW on Monday, Aug. 10. Image via Google Earth.
Eight fire companies responded to a home on Glenford Wittenberg Road in the Ulster County town of Hurley on Monday night after a man in a BMW crashed into a propane tank and a nearby house, police say.
Paul Schiavo, a 30-year-old man from Mount Tremper, was heading east into a 90-degree turn when he drove off the road at 10:50 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 10, according to a press release from the New York State Police. Schiavo hit a guard rail, then a rock embankment and then drove off the road entirely into a house and a propane tank located on the property of 173 Glenford Wittenberg Road, police say.
Highly combustable propane began to leak out of the tank after the crash, and soon first responders from eight local fire departments were on the scene.
The West Hurley Fire Department, Woodstock, Olive, Phoenicia, Sawkill, Ulster Hose, Hurley and Centerville Cedar Grove all responded to the incident "due to the volume of propane involved," the press release states. So did the New York State Police, the Ulster County Sheriff's Department, the town of Hurley Building Inspector and representatives from HeritagEnergy.
Schiavo, the driver, was evaluated at the scene by Mobile Life Ambulance and declined further medical treatment, police say.
