Fuel station outages cause panic

On a blackout darkened Halloween night, Lt. Tom Maslanka of the Warwick Police Department stood directing traffic on Main Street between the Sunoco and Mobil stations.

“It’s a public safety issue,” Maslanka said, noting that the busy throughway was near a hospital, making traffic congestion and gas lines a danger to the community.

Maslanka also noted that a few fights had broken out at the Sunoco station over people cutting in line. “It’s scary;” he said, “its only day 2 and we’re already having arguments over gas.”

The line for Sunoco was particularly long, stretching several car lengths down Grand Street. The traffic was even heavier earlier in the day, Maslanka noted, when Main Street had been closed for utility line repairs. “It was a real nightmare,” he said.

An interesting note, Maslanka said, was that many of the vehicles on the lines had New Jersey plates. “Usually it the other way around,” he said, due to the price difference in gas between the states. With Vernon gas stations closed due to power outages, however, many residents had no other option but to cross the state line to fill their tanks.