Stolen Copper Piping Leads to Oil Leak on Bagburn Hill Road [VIDEO]

Update: 6:59 p.m. — Fire Marshal Bill Davin said a man living at 317 Old Zoar Road had called firefighters at around 3:30 p.m. when he smelled oil.

Firefighters determined that oil had seeped into a pond in the man's yard and were able to trace it back to a vacant house for sale at 90 Bagburn Hill Road.

When someone stole copper pipes to the approximately 275 gallon oil tank, Davin said oil escaped through the basement's dirt floor, and got into a drain pipe and before being carried into a storm drain.

"We still have not determined how much product had leaked," Davin said Thursday.

A police officer directed traffic at about 5:30 p.m. as a State Department of Energy & Environmental Protection crew and a clean up company cleaned the pond and the basement floor. Monroe Fire Department Spokesman Kevin Catalano expected the DEEP to be on the scene into Friday morning.

A Stevenson fire truck was parked on Bagburn Hill Road as firefighters, police officers and DEEP officials nearby assessed the extent of the oil leak.

Drivers may have noticed crews of firefighters at the intersection of Bagburn Hill and Old Zoar roads this afternoon. Kevin Catalano, the Monroe Volunteer Fire Department spokesman, said oil from a vacant house leaked into a pond near a home on Old Zoar.

Catalano said someone stole copper piping attached to a 275 gallon oil tank in the basement.

"The amount that spilled is difficult to quantify," he said. "It leaked into the storm drain and a pond. We have had crews there since about 3:30. The DEP is enroute to assess the situation."