The heat was, quite literally, Frank-ly hard to take.
During last week’s punishing heatwave, a semi-truck spilled an estimated 40,000 pounds of sticky Frank’s RedHot sauce across an Ohio highway.
The rig, loaded with the popular hot sauce, was heading north on Interstate 71 in Delaware County on Thursday when it began leaking, leaving a fiery red trail on the pavement before the driver noticed, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
The driver eventually stopped at a truck stop, while firefighters traced the bright-red mystery liquid along the roadway to pinpoint where it was coming from.
“Our crews were out on the highway trying to track it down and actually were able to follow the trail to the Pilot,” Berkshire, Sunbury, Trenton & Galena Fire Chief Chris Kovach told the outlet.
Once officials determined the substance was Frank’s RedHot sauce, fire crews had to bring in the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, local reports said.
Because of the sauce’s acidity, simply washing it into nearby waterways could have created environmental concerns. Crews instead relied on containment procedures and hazmat supplies to keep the spill from reaching storm drains.
Kovach said the trucking company will be responsible for hiring a cleanup contractor to properly handle the mess.
“A lot of people were shocked, and obviously they see a humorous side of it, but on the flip side of that is, there are some cars, a lot of vehicles that may have potentially been damaged,” Kovach said. “My understanding is this is very hard to clean off.”
One person even posted on a local Facebook page to say they had to spend $30 on car washes but still couldn’t pry the sticky sauce off.
The hot sauce blanketed the highway as an extreme heat wave blanketed much of Ohio in suffocating triple-digit temperatures.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol can issue a citation to the trucking company responsible for the leak, but they have not yet done so, Lt. Robert Curry told the outlet.
Drivers who suffered damage from the spill can seek compensation through their insurance, Curry said.
