APRIL 1, 2015
COLUMBIA COUNTY,
GEORGIA
Members of Columbia County’s Hazardous Materials Response
Team trained for nearly a decade to make sure they are prepared for chemical
emergencies.
They were tested Tuesday when a tractor trailer full of
potentially dangerous chemicals caught fire in a crowded shopping center
parking lot.
“We’ve had small incidents, but this is the first time we’ve
had to deploy the (entire) team,” Columbia County Fire Rescue Special
Operations Batt. Chief Danny Kuhlmann said.
Though the incident is exactly the type of emergency the
team trains for, it was the first time in the nearly 10 years the team has
existed that it was fully deployed for such a situation.
“We learned a lot,” Kuhlmann said of the team formed through
the fire department. “It was a good evaluation for us. We’ll plan to how to
handle it better next time.”
A SAIA Ltd. Freight driver saw his tractor smoking and
pulled into an empty area of Mullins Crossing shopping center by Ruby Tuesday
restaurant in Evans.
Columbia County fire personnel responded and saw the
emergency placards on the side of the smoking trailer, said Batt. Chief and
Special Operations Officer Danny Kuhlmann said.
Upon checking the driver’s manifests, Kuhlmann said he
learned the trailer was loaded with corrosive materials including wood
preservatives, solvents and chlorine tablets.
“They handled it beautifully,” Columbia County Emergency and
Operations Director Pam Tucker said. “I’m very proud.”
It appears that the load might have shifted and a wood
pallet might have fallen onto some chlorine causing it to mix with hydrochloric
acid to start the fire.
The team evacuated the parking lot and nearby businesses as
a precaution in case the toxic smoke blew in the direction of the stores and
shoppers.
“The situation was really, really awkward because it was in
a parking lot and we had to worry about evacuations and all that,” Kuhlmann
said.
The team and firefighters worked with county Roads and
Bridges and Water Utility personnel to create sand dykes around the truck to
contain any contaminated water when firefighters sprayed water on the blaze
inside the trailer.
“We had a bunch of agencies that worked really, really well
together,” Kuhlmann said.
More than three hours after the fire started, firefighters
in protective HazMats suits braved the heavy smoke and opened the rolling door
of the trailer.
They and other firefighters extinguished the blaze. The
water was contained and the freight company hired a private contractor to clean
up the mess.
Kuhlmann and Tucker agree that the experience was great
training for similar events, which could have gotten much worse.
“All of the practice and training and everything truly paid
off yesterday,” Tucker said Wednesday. “This was very small to the type of
significant event we could have occur in the county due to a transportation
accident. So it was very good training as well.”
Tucker, who assisted forming the team in 2005, said
hazardous materials response is expensive and requires lots of training,
equipment and materials.
She helps by obtaining tens of thousands of dollars in grant
funds to support the team, which couldn’t be paid for through the fire
department budget.
The team will be training for a chemical spill in water on
April 18 off the Riverside Park dock in Betty’s Branch in order to get grant
funds to purchase reusable booms to soak up contaminated water, Tucker said.
“We’ve got 17 miles of interstate that go through our county
with chemicals every day,” Tucker said.
“The risk is high. Knowing that they are there now, it is
like total peace of mind.”
Source: http://newstimes.augusta.com