Williams Twp RT 78 Hazmat Incident 2-27-10

Williams Twp Firefighter's were alerted this afternoon for the Tractor Trailer split in half leaking battery acid from it's content's that it was hauling. 28-51 established command requesting Lehigh County Hazmat and a Engine from West Easton. Firefighter's determined the spill was small enough to hold the call to unit's on the scene. Department's stood by awaiting D.E.P to over see the cleanup with the trucking company's clean up crew. Additional units on scene City of Easton EMS NJ and PA State Police.

0 members like this

Tags:

You need to be a member of My Firefighter Nation to add comments!

Join My Firefighter Nation

Comment by Ben Waller on March 6, 2010 at 4:29pm: I'd add a few things to CBz's comments.

The officer appeared to partially duck under the trailer to inspect the bottom with no cribbing or shoring in place. A partially-collapsed trailer is vulnerable to additional collapse. If this one didn't collapse farther, chalk it up to good luck.

The officer went to one knee to check the buckled trailer. If there was an acid leak, hello chemical burn to the knee and goodbye bunker pants - the acid will destroy the fabric.

The crew appeared to cross a creek bridge to get from the apparatus to the broken trailer. If there is a chance for a leak, the crew needs to take absorbent booms and/or pads. Unless there's a rescue problem, containing the spill and keeping it out of the water is the next priority. There didn't appear to be a rescue on this one - no sense of urgency by the crew.

Did the crew check the cab for the shipping papers? The video doesn't show them doing that, but if they didn't, that's the next priority after stopping or slowing any product leak.

What kind of decon resources were brought to the scene? Decon that requires more than hand-and-foot washing is a non-starter in the snow.

Who is in charge of an incident in this location? The state troopers? The fire chief? A county Emergency Management type?

Was there a need for a fixed command post with better facilities than the trunk of the police cars, squad box, and the rear of the (apparent) hazmat/emergency management SUV?

The video is pretty good, but no matter how good the video, there will always be questions, particularly if the strategy and tactics are not obvious.

Comment by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on March 6, 2010 at 4:06pm: Enjoyed the quality of the video, and most importantly the editing that did a really good job providing a scene overview.

Some things I noted:

1. there was no type of delineators provided to block off the lane prior to firefighter's inspecting where the leak occurred.
2. with one firefighter checking out the bottom or the trailer, the other at one point turns his back on traffic...
3. why is there any traffic permitted so close to the trailer?
4. there appears to be no visual signs of a leak... was there one?

CBz