It was the car that Josh Groves noticed first—a red-and-white 1956 Chevy Bel Air, fully restored, which had pulled up next to him at a gas station in St. George, Utah. But as the Dominion Energy Utah gas operations specialist finished filling his company vehicle’s tank, something else grabbed his attention: the sound of liquid gushing onto concrete.
The liquid—gasoline—was spilling from underneath the Chevy. Groves looked up and caught the eye of the car owner as they both realized what was happening.
“I ran over, and his wife was just sitting in the passenger seat, unaware of any of this going on,” Groves said.
Once they got her safely away from the vehicle, Groves took stock of the situation. He checked underneath the car and could see the gasoline leaking from the fuel tank, spilling directly onto the Chevy’s exhaust pipe—still hot from the couple’s drive to the gas station. Concerned about the fuel igniting, Groves asked the car owner to call the fire department while he ran inside to alert the gas station attendant.
Meanwhile, the gasoline continued to pour out, heading directly toward a storm drain. “When I saw that,” Groves said, “I hurried to my truck and got my spill kit and wrapped it around the drain before the fuel got to it.” The spill kit consists of absorbent foam pads that soak up fluid and prevent it from spreading.
While they were waiting for the fire department, Groves moved his company truck to block anyone else from pulling into the stall behind the leaking car. “I grabbed my fire extinguisher,” he said, “just in case, so I could help mitigate” the situation in case the fuel caught fire.
Groves waited to leave until after the fire department arrived, and he was able to tell them he stopped the fuel’s flow before it could enter the storm drain. “Man, you guys are everywhere,” he recalled the fire chief saying. “You’re always here helping us. What is it that you guys don’t do?”
The older couple also didn’t hesitate to share their thanks, sending a note directly to Dominion Energy to praise Groves’ levelheaded and quick actions: “Josh is the kind of man who makes our community great with his can-do volunteer spirit. He is well trained and in control. … I want to thank you for having this kind of young man in your organization.”
Groves says his Dominion Energy training kicked in when he noticed the leak: “We work for the gas industry, and our priority is safety. Our company trains us to be able to respond and to know how to react. So, even though this didn’t pertain to my job, they’ve prepared me for any type of emergency. Our first action is always to make sure the people are safe—that’s our No. 1 priority.”