When something starts falling from the sky and landing on your car, your first instinct is probably to check the weather app. That was the reasonable assumption many Tempe, Arizona residents made on the night of February 5th — right up until the smell hit them. Rain doesn’t smell like a fuel depot, and this most certainly did.
It turns out a US Army special operations UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was overhead that evening with a failed fuel tank, and the neighborhood near 6th Street and Farmer Avenue ended up wearing the evidence. Cars, lawns, and windshields were soaked in what residents quickly identified — through their noses if nothing else — as petroleum.
A report filed by the city of Tempe confirms that the Black Hawk’s fuel tank number two was the culprit. That tank holds roughly 450 gallons, so there was no shortage of material raining down on the unsuspecting block below. The Tempe fire chief was contacted shortly after, and Environmental Services was dispatched to assess the affected neighborhoods, mapping out locations where the smell of petroleum was detected…