Philadelphia Haz-Mat Teams Get Law Requiring Notification

Philadelphia Haz-Mat Teams Get Law Requiring Notification

Apparatus making up a hazardous chemical task force

Philadelphia Fire Dept, photo.

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With special training and equipment, 150 fire fighters make up three hazardous chemical task forces (HCTF) in Philadelphia. That concept began in 1976. Now, an ordinance has been passed to help the task forces with their planning. The rest is up to the task force members.

Called “the right to know law,” it requires anyone having minimum quantities of certain chemicals on their property to report the facts to the department of licenses and inspections. Anything over 500 pounds of some chemicals or 55-gallons of some liquids must be reported. In this way, any citizen, as well as the fire department, has a right to know about those hazardous materials being manufactured, stored, used or transported within the city.

“We could previously go into industrial occupancies and identify chemicals on the premises,” reported Chief Roger Ulschaefer, “but with the new ordinance the responsibility for reporting is on the handler. There are 475 types of chemicals involved.”

Apparatus

Fach task force consists of a 1000-gpm pumper, a ladder truck normally used for fire fighting, a foam pumper and a chemical unit, much like a soft drink delivery truck with roll-up sides. Each HCTF is housed together and designed to respond as a single entity on all incidents involving hazardous chemicals or materials. At times when all required task force components are not available from the same station, the fire communications center is charged with ensuring that the four components necessary to complete a team are dispatched.

“With the hazardous chemical task forces, we tried to take a different approach than we would with the typical third-floor-rear mattress fire,” says Battalion Chief Harry Cusick, who teaches courses on hazardous materials at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md., and recently helped to develop “Hazardous Materials Incident Analysis,” a two-day course to be offered by the academy on weekends. “We had experienced problems, and some injuries, with the ‘go in and get it’ type of approach when applied to hazardous materials incidents. We need the hard-chargers, the strivers, but we have to ensure they fully understand what they are dealing with. The moth and candle syndrome once appeared to be our biggest problem—the fact that we are constantly drawn to the flame. An overaggressive, zealous attitude can put you in a predicament where the immediate responder becomes part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Our task forces represent an attempt to manage hazardous materials response rather than allowing the situation to manage us.

Initial steps

“An initial step was to significantly upgrade our hazardous materials informational data,” said Cusick. “We isolated and identified potential problems by doing a citywide hazard analysis that covered both fixed sites and transportation routes. We approached industry and asked, ‘What can we do to help one another?’ As we became more aware of some of industry’s inherent problems and the auxiliary systems they had on hand that we could use, such as highback-pressure pumps and subsurface injection foam systems, we adapted such information to our tactics and moved ahead to complete detailed preincident analysis of specific installations.

“Concurrently, we selected the most advantageous locations for our task force personnel, reviewed equipment and apparatus we already had on hand, and identified additional necessary items. We brought in our three division chiefs and 13 battalion chiefs and reviewed with them the hazardous chemical task force concept.”

If you are going to establish a hazardous chemical task force, you need a lot of money, extensive training and continuous reinforcement of your efforts, according to Cusick. “There has to be a continuing commitment. The cost of equipment can be overwhelming. Our research and planning unit evaluated the various types of hazardous chemical suits available. The suits we purchased cost approximately $1600 each. With four suits for each of three task forces plus one for backup—a total of 13 suits—we had an expenditure of nearly $21,000 just for necessary chemical suits. Nonsparking tools are also very expensive. Buy the best hammer available at the local hardware store and it might set you back $20 or so; a nonsparking hammer can easily run $100. Other departments should be aware that there is a significant cost factor involved in maintaining a high level of hazardous materials preparedness.”

Continuous training required

Cusick says hazardous materials response requires continuous training. “We bring each unit in at least twice a year for concentrated instruction on flammable liquid fires, changes in hazardous materials processing techniques, container construction and other identified training needs. Also, we send training officers to the task force stations during the year to provide repeated reinforcement of previous training. In addition, our commissioner believes in the policy of rotation of officers. Every three years, officers who have worked on the HCTF are then assigned to regular engine and ladder companies. They have a background in hazardous materials that they carry with them to the regular line companies. We bring new officers in to work with the task forces, and they begin to build an appreciation for hazardous materials that will stay with them throughout their careers. We are constantly building a cadre of personnel within the department who have worked with and studied hazardous materials.”

“We get a lot of assistance from private industry with our semiannual training and other efforts,” notes Fire Commissioner Joseph Rizzo. “Allied Chemical and Rohm & Haas are both located within the city and have been very helpful, as have the trucking associations and the railroads. Chemical engineers, people who have extensive experience with specific chemicals, experts from the Chlorine Institute—we depend on a sizable group of people.”

“The specialized training our hazardous chemical task force personnel receive is not merely parochial education,” agrees Ulschaefer. “We use outsiders extensively. Representatives of the Philadelphia Gas Works have been particularly helpful. Basically, such persons provide us with insights on what we can do to help them and what they can do to help us.”

Seven factors

An outsider observing hazardous materials preparedness within the Philadelphia Fire Department comes away with a feeling that seven factors are crucial to initiating and maintaining the high-level preparedness that is readily apparent: continuous training, provision of specialized equipment and materials, identifiable support for the program from the top on down, extensive prior planning, extremely effective organization, detailed written guidelines and procedures, and placement of a high priority on communications.

“The task forces were necessary both for the protection of citizens and for the safety of our personnel,” Ulschaefer said. “Special knowledge and equipment were absolutely necessary. Many times we respond to an industrial location to find the industrial people who have the expertise for that location and that product are not available. We are dealing with the foreman. We find we must have the ability as first responders to handle a wide variety of chemicals and containers. Often the only advice you are going to get for a few hours is that from within your own command.

“There is a constant upgrading of equipment and techniques because as the state of the art changes out there, we have to adapt and learn how to handle new hazards. The vast growth in products and processes within the entire petrochemical industry has really affected the fire service. The whole situation has changed. We are no longer just fighting class A fires. We have to be ready to combat nearly any challenge the mind can devise.”

Regular visits

At least once a year, fire department personnel stage an orientation on every chemical plant, refinery and other hazardous target within the city to learn what is taking place within such locations, observe changes that have been made since the last visit and identify materials currently stored or handled there. These visits also foster good working relationships that will come in handy should there be an incident.

Five years ago the department implemented a program whereby refinery and chemical industry facilities were assisted to upgrade their plant fire protection services in order to reduce hazards. Where once it was relatively common to find unmarked tanks in such facilities, now every tank is marked. Fire officials cite an exchange of information between the fire service and refiners as particularly rewarding, noting that some large refineries spent millions of dollars upgrading their plant fire protection and identifying specific hazards.

Philadelphia participates in an agreement with Delaware and New Jersey in which all chemical industries and the fire services identify and agree to share specialized equipment and materials when one is faced with a major incident.

Standard operating procedure

Separate, written standard operating procedures are in force for hazardous chemicals and materials, petroleum properties and chemical plants, LNG/LPG emergencies, radiological incidents, railroads, and disposal of hazardous chemicals. With regard to general hazardous chemical emergencies, task force units always use a command post, rely on CHEMTREC as needed and use a designated staging area outside the perimeter of the incident for first aid equipment, standby manpower and logistical support.

Hazardous materials locations are planned by local fire companies, updated on an annual basis. Station exercises are conducted by all platoons to familiarize members with conditions and to discuss specific fire fighting operations that may be encountered. Plans are forwarded to all three task forces where they are maintained in a separate book. In such plans, particular attention is paid to identification of key plant personnel, the plant’s water system, pumping equipment, fire protection systems, utilities, drainage, fire fighting capabilities, foam and other fire suppression materials available, and identifications of hazardous materials.

Plant emergency coordinator

In plants having their own fire brigades, a company employee is identified as the plant emergency coordinator and equipped with a portable radio capable of receiving and transmitting on the F-3 fire band. The coordinator must have the ability to supply or have at hand the following basic information (in addition to a status report on what is burning and what has been done prior to the arrival of fire department personnel): plant maps, fire protection system diagrams, product pipeline diagrams, electrical system diagrams, fire suppression materials available, guides for fire department command personnel, and diagrams of the plant drainage system.

First-arriving units establish a command post and initiate contact with the plant emergency coordinator to develop certain priority information, such as life hazard, product or products involved and their chemical characteristics, exposure hazard, fire protection systems available and plant fire brigade activities thus far.

With regard to bulk shipments of LNG or LPG by marine vessel, whenever such a shipment is destined to arrive at a petroleum property or chemical plant in Philadelphia, the plant is to notify the fire communications center no less than 96 hours in advance and provide the following information: the location of the unloading site and the estimated time of arrival of the vessel, the intended length of time the vessel is expected to be in port, the estimated time of departure, any changes in the itinerary, the name and registry of the vessel, and the size and capacity of the vessel. The fire marshal’s office contacts the United States Coast Guard dangerous cargo officer at Gloucester City, N.J., to ascertain if the vessel has been properly inspected prior to its arrival and arrange with the Coast Guard for a joint inspection of the receiving facility to ensure compliance with applicable regulations. A fire officer from the first-alarm response assignment accompanies the facility inspection team. Fire companies in the docking area are provided with all pertinent information about the shipment.

There are also written guidelines for LNG/LPG emergencies not involving bulk shipment by marine vessel. Along with general information for handling gas emergencies—definitions and characteristics, requirement of a 2000-foot evacuation perimeter, tactical instructions, directions for stopping the flow if possible, and a warning not to extinguish the fire if the gas flow cannot be stopped—instructions are provided on how to request assistance available 24 hours a day from the gas supply department of the Philadelphia Gas Works.

Railroad incidents

A railroad operational procedure stresses the need to maintain communications at all times with the various railroads that serve Philadelphia and provides telephone numbers to be used when requesting information regarding incidents or emergencies. Major rail yards for each railroad are listed individually with a telephone number for each.

Procedures are also given for stopping rail traffic and for having high-voltage power lines deenergized. Instructions are provided on consultation with freight train conductors or engineers to obtain information listing cargoes and the location of specific hazardous items within the train to enable fire fighters to isolate hazardous materials not involved in a fire.

Additional guidelines are spelled out for incidents involving loaded freight or tank cars parked in rail yards or on railroad rights-of-way or sidings. For incidents involving loaded freight or tank cars on private sidings, instructions are given for a series of possible methods to identify the cargo. Included in these methods are contact by the communications center with the various railroads and a call to CHEMTREC. The fire dispatcher may also contact the operation control center or movement director of a railroad and have a train crew dispatched to move rail cars at the request of the on-scene commander. Additional instructions cover, among other things, construction of earthen dams to contain spills, consultation with railroad personnel when dealing with electrically powered railroad engines or cars, methods employed to have a catenary system (system of wires supported between poles and bridges supporting overhead contact wires normally energized at 11,000 volts) shut down, and emergencies in railroad tunnels.

With incidents involving a suspected hazardous material on the Conrail system, the communications center can call a Conrail emergency number with the number of the tank car or freight car and receive the material’s commodity code (STCC), proper name of the material, physical properties, description of its characteristics and hazards, procedure if the material is on fire or involved in fire, personal protection and evacuation procedures, if applicable.

For a hazardous materials inquiry on the B&O Railroad, Conrail’s computer system is available for emergency use if a copy of the waybill, and thus the STCC number, can be obtained for the rail car involved. (The STCC number is a series of seven digits assigned to every commercial product shipped by rail. For example, any known hazardous material will have an STCC number beginning with 49: hydrogen sulfide is 4905410.)

All command vehicles, hazardous chemical task forces, support units and the communications center have been issued “Emergency Handling of Hazardous Materials in Surface Transportation” (in addition to other reference manuals) published by the Bureau of Explosives and Association of American Railroads.

In addition, the Philadelphia Fire Department has a written SOP for ra -diological incidents and one for procedures to follow when disposing of hazardous or unidentified chemicals that may be delivered to a fire station by a citizen. □ □

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