Big stink blankets area, causes alarm

An awful odor blanketed South Philadelphia and parts of South Jersey overnight, awakening some residents and triggering a flood of phone calls to emergency lines and news organizations.

The smell, coming from a spill during a cleanup operation at the Sunoco oil refinery in South Philadelphia, posed no health or safety hazards, according to a company spokesman.

The source was identified, corrective measures were begun, and the air has been continually monitored, said Thomas Golembeski.

"All the readings all along have told us that the situation is safe," he said.

"There's no risk of explosion, there's no risk of fire," he added.

Some oily equipment was being washed out, Golembeski explained. "During the washing process, we think some oil got onto the roof of a tank, and odor from the oil... then drifted into the neighborhood due to the wind."

Complaints from residents and calls from authorities started coming in about 9:15 last night, Golembeski said.

But apparently the problem lingered.

"In my whole life, I have never smelled an odor like this, that wakes you up from your sleep," said Chuck Fitzsimmons, 46, an accounts receivable specialist, who lives with his wife, Lisa, near South 17th Street and Packer Avenue, about a mile from the refinery.

When he went outside, shortly after 2 a.m., about two dozen neighbors were also braving freezing temperatures in their pajamas, upset and baffled. No sirens, no police cars, no fire engines came by to give anyone a clue, Fitzsimmons said.

The stench - "like rotten eggs and gasoline mixed" - gave him a wooziness that lasted until he was on his way to work in Center City, he said.

Explaining his clothes were still reeking by midafternoon, he said Sunoco should clean and deodorize his home.

"They're making billions of dollars. When they affect the community, they need to pay," he said.

Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney, who lives in the South Jersey town of Haddonfield, said the smell awakened her family and that they thought it was gas.

She said they considered evacuating their home at 4:30 a.m. but learned from the local utility, Public Service Electric and Gas, that Philadelphia appeared to be the source of the mysterious odor.

Yant Kinney said she cooked bacon to mask the rotten-egg smell inside her house.

As of 8 this morning, the smell had mostly dissipated, but workers continued to address the problem, Golembeski said.

"We're still in the process of cleaning the oil off the roof of the tank now," he said.

What time the work would be finished he wasn't sure.

"We obviously want to wrap this up as quickly as possible," he said.