Hazmat - Petroleum/Gasoline incidents - Best Practice

Hi All,

I'm a Station Officer (Captain) in Dublin Fire Brigade, Ireland. I've been given the task of researching international best practice for incidents involving petroleum/gasoline, particularly on filling station forecourts. We are updating all our hazmat capability and training and I have been given this topic.

I'd appreciate input from any other department out there, particularly from anyone else involved in training. What are your Standard Operating Procedures? What equipment and tactics do you employ? How do you deal with the possible environmental impact of such incidents? How do you carry out your training for these incidents?

I look forward to hearing from anyone who would like to share their experience.
My email address is barriscalep@eircom.net if you prefer to contact me that way.

Thanks,

Peter Barriscale

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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on May 22, 2009 at 6:16pm

Don't forget the "evil brother" to gasoline....ethynol...it can be very nasty if fire breaks out...about the only thing that will put it out (othr than time) is AR-AFFF.....

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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on May 22, 2009 at 6:27pm

Uphill, upwind, and lots of foam (AFFF or AR-AFFF)!

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on May 24, 2009 at 2:22pm

Start the approach as with any other hazmat - uphill, upwind, and if near a river, upstream.

Block storm drains to keep the fuel out of the storm sewers.

Truckloads of sand with plastic sheeting walls as catchbasins if there's a large fuel spill or running spill.

Large quantities of foam for vapor suppression.

Keep people out of the foam blanket and make sure that you have enough concentrate to maintain the foam blanket.

If you use the new AR-AFFF (ethanol-resistant foam) and then call for an airport rig (ARFF rig) for support, make sure that their foam is compatible with yours. Most airport foam isn't ethanol resistant, because jet fuel doesn't include biofuel additives...at least it doesn't yet.

Know where the emergency fuel shutoffs are for both the fuel tanker and the petrol station.

Wear full turnout gear and SCBA for any approach.

Use direct-reading atmospheric monitors to verify that the foam blanket is actually suppressing the vapors.

Make sure that the fuel-recovery contractor or agency uses explosion-proof or intrinsically safe recovery equipment - pumps, skimmers, etc.

If you need to use tools to shut down a manual valve, they should be non-sparking (beryllium) tools.

All vehicles set up well back from the spill - fire apparatus (appliances) are big mobile ignition sources.

Command should be set up even farther back.

Have enough apparatus (appliances) and firefighters to protect exposures in case of ignition.

Keep all civilains away.

Have the petrol station owner/manager and the fuel tanker driver at the Command post for technical assistance. They generally know the most about valve locations and other important information.

Have an EMS presence for firefighter rehab and to care for any potential injuries.

Have spare turnout gear for any firefighters who have to enter the fuel to shut off valves, etc. You don't want to wear petrol-soaked gear to your next fire.

There are other considerations, but this should give you a good start.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Barriscale on May 25, 2009 at 7:47am

Hi Ben,

Thanks for your detailed reply. Our current procedures are pretty much along the same lines. EMS is an integral part of our dept. so that's a given. Our standard foam is AR-AFFF but I will have to check what the airport are currently using - last I knew it was standard AFFF. Wasn't aware of beryllium tools - our non-sparking equipment is some type of hardened plastic. Do you know where to source them? I'll google them anyway. Our meters read %LEL for hydrocarbons - is that the same type you are referring to?
Appreciate your taking time to reply,
Thanks,

Peter.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Barriscale on May 25, 2009 at 7:51am

Thanks Brian,

Fully understand the basics and have procedures in place. Just looking to update where improvements can be made and any new or specialist equipment that's out there. Would appreciate anything you might know along those lines.

Thanks again,

Peter.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Barriscale on May 25, 2009 at 8:22am

Hi Paul,

Thanks - very little ethanol in this country but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. Will include it in our procedures - not in there currently as procedures are quite a few years old - hence the update.

Peter.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on May 25, 2009 at 8:53am

Peter,

We have the same foam issue with our airport - we use AR-AFFF and they have standard AFFF.
We're going to do some live fire (pan fire) tests to see if the two foams are compatible as finished foam.

I don't know the source for the beryllium tools we have, but I'll find out and let you know.
They are much tougher than plastic, and they're much more hydrocarbon-resistant.

The atmospheric monitors should have at least two-gas capability; oxygen percentage and %LEL. We use isobutylene as our LEL cal gas so that we don't have a conversion factor greater than approximately 2 for any common hydrocarbon interferent gas or vapor.

More later,
Ben

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Permalink Reply by Peter Barriscale on May 25, 2009 at 10:22am

Thanks, Ben,

We have 1 gas, 2 gas and 4 gas monitors measuring O2, H2S, CO and %LEL, have to check what our LEL is calibrated on. If not on isobutylene, will suggest we go that way as eliminating conversion makes things easier, no doubt.

Thanks again,

Peter.

PS What dept are you attached to?

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on May 25, 2009 at 10:29am

I'm with Hilton Head Island Fire & Rescue, South Carolina coast.

Isobutylene will not eliminate conversion factors, but it will reduce the maximum conversion range from approximately 3.5:1 down to around 2:1.

I'm leery of 1-gas monitors. If there's enough interferent gas to reduce the oxygen content, you may get artificially low LEL readings. That can result in your meter team being in a flammable environment while getting readings that tell the team they're still safe. A two-gas (oxygen and LEL) is the minimum.

We use a 10% LEL as our maximim allowable for entry. Even at 3.5%, that makes the actual LEL reading around 35% LEL, which is well below the flammable range even if your conversion factors are not exact.

One thing I forgot from the SOG is to eliminate all sources of ignition, but to do it remotely for large spills. If you shut down the power well away from the spill, you don't need to worry about a sparking switch near the spill causing ignition.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on May 25, 2009 at 10:56am

Our beryllium tool source is Ampco Safety Tools of Garland, Texas.

http://www.ampcosafetytools.com/

We have a hazmat kit very similar to the one shown.

Hazmat - Petroleum/Gasoline incidents - Best Practice

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