Updated: State police identify fuel tanker driver from fatal crash
Mar. 10—State police on Friday identified the deceased driver of a fuel tanker truck that overturned on U.S. 15 last weekend, hit a tree and caught fire.
Ronald Leroy Heiston Jr., 58, of Smithsburg, was pronounced dead at the scene, a news release said. He was later taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, where he was officially identified.
Heiston was driving the tanker truck with 8,650 gallons of gasoline from Manassas, Virginia, to Taneytown, Maryland, the release said. Officials have previously said he was taking the gasoline to a local Sheetz location.
There were no other deaths or injuries, state police said. One family was displaced after their house suffered significant fire damage.
Six homes and five vehicles were damaged from the fire after the crash, according to state police and Frederick County Fire and Rescue Services spokeswoman Sarah Campbell.
Just before noon on March 4, Fire and Rescue began receiving multiple calls for a vehicle fire on U.S. 15, north of Rosemont Avenue.
Firefighters found the overturned tanker truck on fire. It had hit a tree, which was also on fire.
The fire had spread across the street and caught one house on fire. The fire was threatening other homes nearby.
The initial house fire report was at the 500 block of Schley Avenue, Campbell wrote in an email Friday. Schley Avenue is on the opposite side of U.S. 15, past the southbound lanes.
However, there was no fire in that area, she wrote.
The gasoline leaked along U.S. 15, causing a "large brush fire" along the highway, Frederick County Fire Chief Tom Coe said during a press conference on the day of the incident.
It flowed all the way to the area of the intersection of Rosement Avenue and West 2nd Street.
Some gasoline flowed into stormwater drains. The spread was contained the same day as the crash, and didn't make it into Carroll Creek, authorities have said.
The fires were contained within 40 minutes and the fuel in the stormwater system was contained by 3:15 p.m.
Follow Clara Niel on Twitter: @clarasniel
