Like most state capitals, Sacramento has seen its share of fiery rhetoric and combustive political argument. The city of Roseville, Calif., just 18 miles north of Sacramento, recently faced two hazmat incidents separated by a mere 30 days that involved much higher real-world-stakes than the usual partisan wrangling.
Incident #1
In the early evening of Oct. 13, 2011, the driver of an 18-wheel tractor trailer was suddenly cut off by another vehicle and forced into evasive maneuvers, swerving left and right in the midst of a construction zone on busy Interstate 80. After hitting the brakes and stopping, he heard and felt his cargo tumbling and falling.
This was no ordinary cargo of garden-variety consumer or durable goods: Inside were nearly two dozen 55-gallon drums of hazardous materials that consisted of heavily concentrated peroxides, hydroxides, hypochlorites, and nitric and sulfuric acids.
The driver got out of the vehicle and went around to the rear where he found the barrels were knocked over and leaking. He immediately called 9-1-1.
Confronted with Chemicals
First on scene was Mike Bradley, a Type 1 Hazmat Team coordinator and captain of Roseville Fire Department’s (RFD’s) Engine Company 1, and his crew. Seeing the severity of the incident, he requested the RFD’s Hazmat Task Force, which brought Truck 1 with Captain Greg James, Battalion Chief Kevin Morris and several California Highway Patrol officers.
Confronted by a strong odor, and upon reviewing the driver’s MSDS paperwork, which indicated the chemicals’ high toxicity levels, Kevin Cullison, the technical reference specialist with the RFD, contacted the experts at the company that had manufactured the chemicals.
His worst fears were confirmed: The chemists told him that the barrels contained volatile acids and bases that, if mixed, were prone to rapid chemical chain reactions. If combustion occurred, there was the potential for a massive, fast-moving firestorm. “You mix one of the very concentrated bases with one of the very concentrated acids and there’s the threat for a caustic, chlorine gas cloud,” Bradley says.
The 313-bed Sutter Roseville Medical Center and two major hotels were located a mere quarter-mile downwind, which made them sitting ducks if a life-threatening, chlorine gas cloud formed.
Strategy & Tactics
Morris, Bradley and James led the pre-entry briefing to outline strategy and tactics: investigate what spilled, identify the spilled material and determine next steps. “Do we simply right the barrels?” Bradley says “Are the barrels damaged and do they require over-packing in a larger barrel? Do you transfer the materials into a new, undamaged container? You really don’t know what the best course of action is until your entrants are in the hot zone.”
The 11-member team decided to do a Level A entry. The two first responders (and their back-ups) were protected by NFPA 1991-certified, ONESuit Flash hazmat suits, a lightweight, fully-encapsulated suit that contains breathing apparatus. (Note: Level A suits provide maximum respiratory and skin protection, while Level B suits provide lesser respiratory protection but maximum skin protection. Since not all situations require extreme protection against the unknown, Level B suits can offer a lower cost option for use in scenarios with known hazards. Departments can save money by avoiding use of a significantly more expensive Level A suit when it’s not needed. For more information on Level B suits, read “Speccing a Level B Hazmat Suit: Dual certification is key to spending less and getting more.”)
“Going into the truck and righting those barrels within that toxic stew–we didn’t want any risk of exposure for our guys,” Bradley notes.
Crisis Contained
Two lanes of I-80 were shut down, emergency lights were brought into the staging area, and the two first responders entered the truck. They crawled over and around the heavy, leaking barrels, righted them one by one, and applied absorbents over the remaining chemicals that had spilled onto the floor of the cargo hold.
Mission accomplished: The crisis was contained. Private contractors moved in afterward to clean up and safely repack the materials for shipping to their original destination.
Bradley later described the entire process as an 8 1/2-hour adventure, saying, “Everything in hazmat is done in a very methodical fashion. No steps are skipped, because the consequences of somebody coming into contact with those chemicals are really awful. So you make the plan, you make a back-up plan, and then you formulate a back-up plan to the back-up plan.”
That level of precision and risk abatement is also necessary when it comes to the equipment and protective garments used in hazmat incidents. “The NFPA requirements for a chemical flash-fire component led us to ONESuit,” Bradley explains. “Saint-Gobain was first out of the gate, and it’s absolutely the most flexible, usable and durable suit on the market. It’s widely recognized as a terrific suit with the best customer service in the market. If we damage or nick a suit, they take it back to their factory, make the repair, and send it back to us without inconvenience.”
Little did Bradley know that a second incident would occur just 30 days later.
Incident #2
On Nov. 13, at Union-Pacific’s Davis Yard in Roseville, the country’s largest rail switching facility west of the Mississippi (stretched out over 915 acres), a rail car’s compromised pressure valve sent its contents spewing into the air and over the sides of the shipping container.
What came out was syrupy, sticky, caustic, sulfuric acid at the highest concentration allowed by law: 98.2%. “This is serious stuff,” Bradley says. “If it comes into contact with you, it will burn you, and it is very difficult to remove.”
The crippled, spewing car (dubbed a “puker”) was tugged to a dedicated emergency repair line spur in Roseville. Bradley’s team, along with Battalion Chief Morris, converged on the scene and was briefed by Ben Salo, the railroad’s dedicated hazmat expert.
Salo’s diagnosis was that the sulfuric acid blew out the rail car’s frangible disk valve system, which is similar in function to a safety relief valve, but isn’t resealable.
The Level B Response
A three-person, Level B entry team prepped to enter the railcar and contain the situation by replacing the busted valve. They wore ONESuit Shield, a Level B suit that’s also lightweight, but doesn’t include internal breathing apparatus. “Sulfuric acid at that high concentration does not have a very high vapor profile, so we didn’t need the Level A,” Bradley says.
The combination of experienced first responders, the proper protective equipment and the team’s monthly training drills, quarterly practice drills and annual proficiency exams paid off yet again. The team was able to remove the faulty valve and install a new one. Another crisis successfully averted.
A Final Note
As these two incidents illustrate, hazmat operations require much consideration, care, attention to detail, precision and the proper protection. Although these incidents had successful outcomes and everyone went home safe, other incidents have very different outcomes. For this reason, fire departments must always remember to train on hazmat operations diligently, preplan the buildings, businesses and/or highways in their area that regularly handle or manufacture hazardous materials and always wear proper hazmat PPE.
