BY RICK HAASE
An emergency at a fixed petrochemical facility can be one of the most demanding responses for a fire department. Responding to these types of facilities can be very dangerous if there is no adequate response plan. A little up-front planning can save needless injuries and hours of frustration.
Consider these facts:
- Most of the reported hazardous materials releases (65 to 70 percent) occur at fixed site facilities.
- Annually, most of the largest dollar loss fires occur at fixed site facilities.
- Sixty-two percent of confined space fatalities occur in industrial settings.
- Approximately three percent of all fire department responses will involve chemical hazards.
If your fire department has a fixed petrochemical plant in its jurisdiction, you had better be ready to respond to the plant. The odds are that you will be responding to the facility for an emergency.
LOCATE THE FACILITIES
Your first priority must be to know where the fixed site petrochemical facilities are in your response area. Often, fixed petrochemical facilities are sitting right in a department’s backyard, and the department doesn’t even realize it.
Most departments commonly think of these facilities as refineries and chemical processing plants, but other processing/manufacturing plants also have the potential for petrochemical emergencies. They include additive plants, fertilizer plants, power-generating stations, and any other large manufacturing plants.
Bulk storage facilities present the second highest potential for petrochemical emergencies. They typically include tank farms/bulk plants, pressurized gas storage areas (such as propane bulk plants and dealerships), underground cavern storage areas, and warehouses. These bulk storage areas can be very deceiving: Even the smallest facilities may have large quantities of materials stored on the premises.
Another type of facility with the potential for petrochemical response is the loading terminal. Loading terminals are usually fed from nearby processing plants; bulk storage areas; or, in some cases, pipelines. The loading terminals (sometimes called “loading racks”) may provide loading facilities for truck transportation, rail transportation, and marine transportation. The loading facilities may serve one form or multiple forms of transportation, depending on the location and type of product being loaded.
Transmission stations are yet another location with the potential for petrochemical emergencies. As you’ve traveled through your district, have you seen small buildings or fenced areas that contain piping, valving, pumps, or similar equipment? These areas are typically transmission stations for pipelines or utility systems (natural gas). These transmission stations are usually near large airports, truck terminals, or manufacturing plants. The transmission stations usually tap into high-capacity pipelines and either boost the pressure to move the product along or reduce the pressure for use at local facilities.
Transportation facilities such as bus terminals, truck terminals, rail terminals, airports, and marine terminals can be home to a possible petrochemical emergency. Also, don’t forget the local gas stations, especially if they have aboveground storage systems. The facilities may contain only a single product, but multiple products may be present in many cases.
Other miscellaneous locations that could pose the potential for petrochemical responses include maintenance facilities, large farming operations, large construction sites, and shared industrial parks.
Fire department personnel must tour their response area and seek out the sites that have the potential for petrochemical response. Knowing where these sites are ahead of time is much easier than learning about them during the middle of an emergency.
VISIT THE FACILITIES
Some departments, especially smaller departments with limited resources, bypass the very important step of visiting fixed site facilities during the planning process. The site visit is a very essential part of the planning process and should be treated as if it is a win-win situation for the facility and the fire department.
Plan the visits in advance. Just showing up at the front gate of a fixed site facility can be very awkward for everyone involved. Call the plant management to set up a date and a time for the plant visit. Set aside enough time for the visit. A visit to a small facility may take a few hours; large industrial complexes may take an entire day or more.
Make the management aware of the tour’s purpose-who will be attending, the type of things you would like to see, and the type of information you would like to discuss. Being up front with the management will build good rapport and mutual understanding. A good relationship with plant management is one of the keys to a strong response plan.
MEET THE PEOPLE
The first part of a plant visit should be centered around meeting the key people at the plant. In small facilities, this may mean meeting the entire staff. In large facilities, it may mean meeting the safety department personnel; risk management personnel; security personnel; and, in larger facilities, the facility fire chief and his officers. Do not hesitate to meet personnel from different parts of the facility. Maintenance, operations, and senior management personnel may prove valuable to your working relationship.
The communications you establish with plant personnel during your first visit will set the stage for the future relationship. Keep in mind that these facilities are just as much your customers as the local homeowners in your response jurisdiction. Be open and frank with the plant personnel, but also be considerate. Although your department’s priorities are fire prevention and response requirements, fixed facilities often have special needs that must be addressed. You must be flexible and willing to work with them. The majority of the time, industry will make every attempt to work with local agencies and make all situations as positive as possible. Negative outcomes of initial meetings will strain relationships and close communications. Proceed in a way that will have you perceived as an ally, not an enemy.
TOUR THE PLANT
Touring the plant is an essential part of your response planning activities. You must consider a few key factors. If plant management offers an opportunity to tour the plant, don’t pass up the chance, and include as many response personnel as possible in the tour group. This includes not only command officers but also the first-due engine and ladder companies, the haz mat teams, the rescue teams, and ambulance personnel who may be asked to respond to the plant. Consider setting up multiple tours if the personnel group is large. It is much better to see a facility for the first time during normal operations than during an emergency.
Before taking to the field, ask the plant representatives to provide an overview of the plant as it is working in a controlled environment. This overview should include such things as a general description of the processes and processing equipment, a general layout of the plant, a review of high-hazard areas, and a general review of plant safety requirements. Depending on the type of industry, a very detailed plant safety briefing may be needed before entering. Conducting the overview and safety briefing in a controlled environment before entering the plant will eliminate a lot of confusion as well as prepare the group for the tour. The noise and general hustle and bustle of plant operations may limit the discussion time in the field environment.
Don’t rush through a tour. Take your time, and view every portion of the plant possible, including the insides and outsides of buildings. Viewing the process equipment from a bus is one thing; standing next to the equipment gives you a whole new perspective. If possible, ask to see the inside configuration of tanks and vessels. Many times, different pieces of equipment may be taken out of service for maintenance, allowing you to view the internal configurations.
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Note how the facility and the equipment are laid out. This is probably one of the most important components of a tour. Table 1 lists some of the key factors to look for when touring plant property.
One thing to keep in mind during the plant tour is the language/terminology of the plant representative leading the tour. The terminology may be foreign to most emergency response personnel. Don’t be afraid to speak up and have the representative translate the terminology into normal words. Many times, plant personnel have become so used to the jargon that they take it for granted that everyone understands it. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you don’t understand how a system works or what the manufacturing terminology means, speak up.
Emergency response personnel should also respect the hosts during the tour. Do not carry on side conversations or wander off from the tour group. Follow the plant safety policies. Most importantly, don’t touch anything unless you are told to, and watch where you step and what you touch. Minor adjustments to process equipment may create shutdown or upset conditions.
If possible, tour the plant during different times of the day and on different days of the week. Some plants have completely different operations on a Tuesday day shift than on a Saturday afternoon shift. Tour the plant at different times of the year. Many plants conduct maintenance turnarounds during specific times. These maintenance activities can drastically change the plant’s operations and can possibly increase the response potential.
Attending a single tour will not provide you with all the information you need. Things are always changing within plant facilities. New equipment is being installed; old equipment is being removed. You will learn something new every time you attend a tour.
REVIEW RESPONSE CAPABILITIES
During your preplanning tour, review the on-site response capabilities at the facility. They will vary widely according to the facility’s size and complexity.
Small facilities may have fire extinguishers; fire detection systems; and, possibly, some hose reels. Medium-size facilities may have fixed fire detection and suppression systems, fixed fire water monitors, foam distribution systems, and even an emergency response team. Large facilities may have evacuation alarm systems, dedicated fire water systems, mobile fire apparatus, and highly specialized response teams.
To understand what type of response your agency may have to provide to a fixed site facility, you must first understand what type of response the fixed facility will provide for itself. Become acquainted with the facility’s response capabilities so you can judge the type of response your department may be called to provide.
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Whatever type of response the industry may provide, you need to understand your department’s role when it comes through the gate. Discussing how incidents will be managed, who will be in charge, how information will be communicated, and what type of equipment will be available are very important. Table 2 lists questions that should be considered in discussions on response operations.
PREPLANNING FIXED PETROCHEMICAL SITES
If you think preplanning a building in the local business district is tough, you are going to be in for a real surprise if you have a petrochemical facility of any significant size in your response area.
A comprehensive preplan of a petrochemical facility will probably require a format with which your department may not be familiar. If there are buildings in the facility, they can be preplanned in the manner with which you are accustomed. The process areas of the facility, however, will require a different approach. The maze of tanks, piping, pumps, and similar equipment will be very difficult to preplan.
To adequately preplan a petrochemical facility, you will need to take the elephant-eating approach-one small piece at a time. Start by developing a large-scale overview of the facility, depicting roadways, buildings, process areas, storage areas, and the like, in a block diagram format. The facility overview is the road map that will get you to a general area.
Next, expand on each block within the diagram format, breaking down areas into buildings, process areas, and storage areas. Building preplans within petrochemical facilities, for the most part, follow typical preplan formats unless they house indoor processing equipment, which may require additional work.
Process area preplans will typically include a layout of the process equipment (pumps, tanks, vessels), piping raceways (smaller process areas may allow the interconnections of piping from equipment to equipment to be shown), and key emergency equipment (such as hydrants, hose reels, fixed systems). The more complex the process, the more generic the preplan will have to be. Very complex systems (such large equipment systems, multiple-level systems, and so on) will be extremely difficult to depict accurately. Simple systems consisting of only several pieces of equipment and piping can be shown in a very detailed manner.
To preplan a process area, you will have to work closely with the facility’s employees. They may be able to provide documentation that already exists, and those who work with the equipment on a daily basis may be able to give you a simplified perspective of a very complex system.
When preplanning petrochemical facilities, you may require information that is not normally gathered for the typical municipal preplan. This information will include the following: the amount of foam required to extinguish a tank fire, the length of rope required to lower a patient from the highest point on a vessel, and the type of haz mat suit required for response to a specific chemical. These are only a few examples. Work with facility personnel to make sure you understand the key information to be documented on your preplans. Know what is expected from your fire department.
Preplanning petrochemical facilities can be a simple or a complex process. The key is to have some type of preplan so that you will have an understanding of the facility, which will be invaluable during a response.
GATHERING DOCUMENTATION
One of the most important, yet often overlooked, components of preparing for petrochemical facility response is gathering documentation. Acquiring documentation already developed by facility personnel would be a big bonus.
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In some cases, facilities are required by law to share with emergency response agencies key information, such as response plans, material safety data sheets (MSDSs), and chemical inventories. Although these documents provide some good information, they are only the tip of the iceberg. Many petrochemical facilities have a wide variety of documentation available. Table 3 lists potential documentation that may be helpful for response agencies. The facilities generally will not release this documentation but may release it to emergency response agencies.
To acquire this documented information from the facility, you first have to develop a relationship with that facility. Walking into a fixed facility and demanding documentation will get you nowhere. Develop a relationship with industry, and explain the reason you need specific documentation. Most will be glad to provide you with as much information as possible. Sometimes, a facility will not release the information because of company policy or legal reasons.
TRAINING TO MEET THE NEEDS
After becoming somewhat familiar with local petrochemical facilities, prepare to train in this type of response. Training for petrochemical response is an ongoing process. The first portion of the training program includes the tour and preplanning operations. Learning what special skills are needed to respond to each fixed site facility is a top priority. If the facility has a large number of tanks, for example, training would have to include fighting fires in storage tanks. If the facility contains quantities of hazardous materials in different types of containers and piping systems, your department will have to focus on haz mat response operations. If the facility routinely conducts work in high elevations or inside confined spaces, it is time to hone your members’ technical rescue skills.
Although your department may already be thoroughly skilled in all types of response operations, most fixed site facilities contain special situations that may stretch your agency’s body of knowledge. Your department may be well trained in foam operations, for example, but do you have the resources and training to produce sufficient amounts of foam to extinguish a fully involved 200-foot-diameter floating roof tank of crude oil (around 7,000 gpm of finished foam solution)? Your department may be well trained in confined space rescue, but do you have the resources and training to enter a multitrayed distillation column and perform a rescue? These are questions you will need to ask if you have the responsibility to respond to a fixed petrochemical facility.
The learning process entails learning the concepts and then applying them. It is difficult to get hands-on training in industrial settings, since many industries operate around the clock. The opportunity for on-site training is another benefit of developing a strong working relationship with industry. Don’t pass up an opportunity to train within a fixed facility site.
A training drill/exercise is an excellent opportunity for meshing facility resources with your emergency response agency resources. Conduct these drills/exercises under as realistic conditions as possible. Granted, you won’t be able to light a real fire or release real hazardous materials, but conducting drills/exercises during normal work hours with industry personnel who would normally be involved during an emergency situation will reap great benefits.
Continual training and regularly scheduled drills help responders to become more familiar with the site and to build a better working relationship with the facility.
EVALUATE/RECYCLE
Preparing for response to fixed petrochemical facilities involves more than a single meeting with key personnel, a single tour, a single training class, or a single drill. Personnel change, facilities change, and new manufacturing concepts are introduced. Plans must be continually evaluated and updated, and interaction with the fixed petrochemical facility should be often enough to allow responders and changing industry personnel to learn to work as a team. At a minimum, tours and training exercises should be held annually and whenever major changes occur in the facilities or response organizations.
Industry and response agencies should look for opportunities to strengthen their working relationship. An engine company’s informal visit to the facility to show off its new pumper, an invitation to the response agency from industry to view the inner workings of a process during a maintenance shutdown period, and joint training programs between the local response agencies and an industrial response team are examples of ongoing activities that will help build the relationship.
If an incident occurs within a facility, seize the moment to learn as much as possible about the response process. Conduct a formal postincident analysis to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the response and interface operations. Organize a study plan that will include offering proposed solutions to any identified weaknesses.
The effectiveness of your response to a fixed petrochemical facility will be directly proportional to your preparation for the response. Start your preparation today, continue your preparation tomorrow, and keep on planning into the future.
RICK HAASE is the emergency response coordinator for the TOSCO Wood River Refinery in Roxana, Illinois, and is the chief of the Staunton (IL) Fire Protection District. He serves as a field staff instructor for the Illinois Fire Service Institute and has associate degrees in industrial electronics and fire science technology and a bachelor’s degree in advanced fire administration. He has 12 Illinois State Fire Marshal training certifications and is a certified emergency program manager and a certified occupational health and safety technologist. Haase currently serves as vice-chairman of the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ Industrial Fire and Safety Section.
