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What are people thinking? HazMat incident at FireHouse
I just read an article in the El Paso Times that someone took a quart bottle of Picric Acid to an El Paso Fire House on the East Side and gave it to them. Now let me think correctly... Picric Acid = Nasty Explosive if it has crystalized in the least bit. Those are shock sensitive crystals at that. Must be a sight to see your own HazMat response team come to your station which has now become the HOT ZONE in the incident. You never know what someone is going to walk up to your station with and hand off to you. Thank God it did not crystalize while with the EPFD HM team. They ended up calling a civil HM disposal service to come and take care of it.
FF Schoen
God Bless and Never Forget
Here is the link:
http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?id=60762&s...
FF Schoen
God Bless and Never Forget
Here is the link:
http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?id=60762&s...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by KOJOFF on
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Just goes to show you... never just take something from a perfect stranger... see what it is first... then send them outside... with it in their hand.
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Permalink Reply by FF Schoen on
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I know rfd, just thinking about how old that stuff may have been brings videos from HM school back into my head...all I keep seeing is a large Explosion. I still can't believe that someone did that, but then again....out here anything is possible.
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Permalink Reply by Justin DiPierro on
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At our station we have a saying that fits this perfectly... "You just can't fix stupid!"
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No that's just ignorance. Stupid is a complete lack of intelligence.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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Back in the late 80's there was an ajoining town whose F.D. responded to a minor HAZMAT incident. When the incident was wrapping up, they weren't sure what to do with the material, so they brought it back to their station until it could be properly disposed of! WTF? I wasn't on the department back then, but when I went through HAZMAT OPS several years ago, that was the example of what not to do!
Incidently, Picric Acid can be found in almost any high school chemistry lab. Food for thought? I think so!
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Oh man, that had to be ........ WTF? is right. What kind of hazardous material was it? You never bring something back to your house. I am so thankful that training and better technology is out there. But then again... no harm to PD but we have the Cop-O-Meter. If your at a HazMat scene and PD is standing vertical, everything is ok. If they are horizontal, then something is wrong.
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I don't remember what the HAZMAT was, but I know a guy who was there then. I'll have to ask him when I see him again.
We've been known to use the Cop-O-Meter also...lol
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Actually, picric acid calls are more appropriate for EOD (bomb squad) response than for a hazmat team response.
In my part of the world, Hazmat teams take care of Hazmat Classes 2 through 8. Hazmat Class 1 (Explosives) is left to the cops and the military that have the EOD teams.
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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We had an issue with Pitric Acid in a textile mill in our area. It was in a lab and the bottle was dated to the later 1950's. It entailed a FULL Bomb Squad response in conjunction with the Haz Mat Team. Your right, you never know what will come through the door.
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and of course now that I have read Ben's response after adding my own, it's the same here. The HM team is there to assist in the occurance of a explosion or secondary haz mat issue. We generally provide the intel on the substance and support.
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