No patients were in any danger, but the fuel spilled into a nearby pond.

Fire crews worried about the area where the fuel spilled. It’s where the Children’s Hospital drains empty out, and it is a natural area and retention pond.

Crews put white tubing in the water trying to catch the diesel before it hurt the wildlife. The first concern was the Children’s Hospital clinic building where diesel gushed on the roof.

The fuel came from a tank that supplies a back-up power generator. A pump in the system malfunctioned. Crews realized that the diesel would drain off the roof through a sewer system and into the natural area. It’s close to the Menomonee River.

“This is a part of the Menomonee in a sense that is still undeveloped and used for biking trails and public recreation,” Dep. Chief Scott Erke from the Wauwatosa Fire Department said.

Haz mat teams moved in with tubes. They absorb the diesel. Fire crews estimate that the vast majority of the fuel was contained before it hurt the environment.

“We want to obviously protect the wildlife and any other situations within the Menomonee and where the Menomonee might flow,” Erke said.

TODAY’S TMJ4’s Mick Trevey talked to the Sierra Club. They’re glad crews stopped the diesel flow before there was a health concern.

“Environmental toxins that get into our waterways eventually work their way into Lake Michigan, and that’s where our drinking water comes from,” Rosemary Wehnes from the Sierra Club said.