MONCTON -- With the smell of diesel still strong in the air, cleanup crews were still working on a spill just outside of the Moncton Hospital on Friday.

Deputy Chief Rob Brine of the Moncton Fire Department says they responded to the call just after 2 p.m. Thursday. 

"When the crews arrived there was a large, approximately 70,000 litre fuel tank that's used to supply the generators, or the boilers, and when crews got there, fuel was leaking over the top of it," Brine said.

Brine says ambulances were also dispatched to the area for wellness checks on some residents, including to a daycare just down the street.

An employee who works at the daycare who says while she cannot speak for any of the children, did herself receive medical attention after fumes from the diesel spill caused her to feel "unwell."

Public works crews were also called in to help mitigate the spill.

"We dispatched crews right away in order to get material out there," said Jeff Scott, the general foreman of public works for the City of Moncton. "When the supervisor was on site and was able to meet up with the parties involved in the fuel spill. He made assurances that the department of environment had been contacted to make sure that any appropriate environmental protections were going to be put in place."

In a statement to CTV, the department of environment said in part: "Approximately 250 litres of diesel spilled from an overflow from the relief valve on a diesel storage tank. The diesel product has been removed and the source of discharge was mitigated yesterday. We will follow-up with a site inspection on Dec. 9. We have not received any calls pertaining to fumes or odours."

Scott says a company was called in to clean out catch basins in the area after some of the fuel made its way into  the sewage system.

"The system was checked a couple manholes down from where the spill was and found that it drained into the combined system, so there wasn't any directly discharged into a water body," Scott said. " But anything that did happen to escape the area would have gone for treatment at the sewage treatment plant."