Ohio heatwave turns spicy as truck leaks 40,000lb of Frank’s Redhot Sauce onto highway

Frank’s Redhot Sauce is delicious on fries, a hot dog, and nachos, but perhaps not slathered over a highway in the blazing sun.

As The Columbus Dispatch reports, on Thursday June 30 a truck hauling the condiment was traveling north on Interstate 71 in Delaware County, Ohio, when it sprang a leak. The driver didn’t notice he was leaving a spicy trail behind him, resulting in fire crews following the trail of the distinctive red liquid until it ended at a truck stop some distance away.

Berkshire, Sunbury, Trenton & Galena Fire Chief Chris Kovach said: “Our crews were out on the highway trying to track it down and actually were able to follow the trail”. In total, around 40,000lb of the sauce ended up on the highway, leaving the fire crews in a sticky situation.

Kovach explained that they couldn’t simply wash the sauce off the road as they were afraid it would head into the waterways and create an environmental hazard. Their solution was to call in the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, whose teams arrived in hazmat suits with containment pods to prevent the hot sauce from entering the drainage system.

“My understanding is this is very hard to clean off.”

And as for the unfortunate motorists who drove headlong into the hot sauce? Kovach said:

“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. My understanding is this is very hard to clean off.”

The Columbus Dispatch reports that a woman whose car was affected says she’s so far spent $30 on car washes but can’t shift the hot sauce from her vehicle.

Lt. Robert Curry of the Ohio Highway Patrol has said they haven’t yet issued a citation to the truck company responsible for transporting the hot sauce, but said that “those impacted by the hot sauce may seek compensation through their insurance.”

However, Kovach indicated that the trucking company will be footing the bill, telling reporters that they’ll have to arrange a clean-up company to return the highway to its former state.

In other highway nightmare news, Arizona drivers recently had to contend with a semi overturning and sending an estimated 2 million bees swarming over the highway. In addition, Ohio drivers now no longer have to worry about the Dublin Police Department’s crime-fighting robot “DubBot”, after the machine failed to produce any arrests, criminal cases, or citations during its time in service.