Ernie Shaw says he’s grateful for emergency shutoff valves inthe gas pump outside his store after a driver ran over the pumpThursday night.

Brookhaven Fire Department was dispatched to Ernie’s Diner at1405 Union Avenue extension around 10:40 p.m. where a fire hadignited after Bruce Douglas Martin, 26, of Brookhaven, had backedover a gas pump in a borrowed 1998 Dodge pickup truck.

Lt. Eric Smith, a BFD firefighter, said they were able toextinguish the fire quickly with an extinguisher, but that thesituation could have been worse had the fire been able to get intothe gas supply to the pump.

“That’s the reason these things are designed that way – to keepsomething like this from becoming a really big problem,” hesaid.

Shaw, who has owned the diner since it opened in 1993, said thathe wasn’t sure what to think when he got the call at his home thatthe fire department was en route to his diner.

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