On the afternoon of January 31st, protection rangers responded to a report of an overturned liquid propane truck on a gravel road inside the park boundary approximately a quarter mile from the Current River in Shannon County. The rangers, along with personnel from state and local agencies, isolated the area and cared for the driver, who was transported to the St. Francis Medical Center in Mountain View, treated for minor injuries, and later released. Rangers and fire personnel then made an initial assessment of damage to the truck and of the propane it was carrying. The truck was found to be on its side in a frozen creek, where it came to rest after sliding off an ice-covered bridge near the end of a steep one-lane dirt road that is several miles from a paved highway. A small propane leak was found from a fitting on the truck. A hazmat team and two wrecker companies joined in the recovery operation. After the truck was placed back on its wheels, the hazmat crew was able to stop the propane leak. The truck was not removed from the scene until the following day due to several inches of snow that fell during the incident. On February 1st, a resource damage assessment of the area was conducted which revealed that the damage to park resources was negligible.
