Propane truck drops into sinkhole

A wrecker from Lexington and firefighters from Cambridge, Wilsonville, Bartley and Red Willow Western respond to a propane truck and sinkhole incident southeast of Cambridge Wednesday afternoon. (Billie Cole/McCook Daily Gazette)

CAMBRIDGE, Nebraska -- No one was injured and a worst-case scenario was averted after a sinkhole sucked up the back-end of a fully-loaded propane truck in the yard of a rural Cambridge, Nebraska, home Wednesday afternoon.

Roger Powell, Furnas County's emergency manager, said this morning that the situation could have been so much worse. But there was no propane leak, no fire and "everyone went home safe. That's what we like."

Powell said the truck, from Ag Valley Co-Op and loaded with 2,500 gallons of propane, backed into the farmyard to fill a tank close to the house, when the back end dropped into a sinkhole, believed to have been an old septic system.

The driver got out without incident, but the truck was stuck and sinking.

Powell said firefighters and trucks arrived from Cambridge, Wilsonville, Bartley and Red Willow Western, "mainly as a precaution. If something had happened, we would have needed lots of water."

Powell said two wreckers from Randy's and Brian's Towing in Lexington were able to lift the back end of the truck up and pull the front end forward at the same time.

The incident was reported about 12:30 p.m., Powell said, and the clean-up was completed by late afternoon. Powell declined to release the name of the homeowner.