Firefighters train on Texas props Firefighters train on Texas props

Transcription

IFW
Industrial
Fire
World
Firefighters train on Texas props
Friendly
Fire
P.O. BOX 9161, COLLEGE STATION, TX 77842
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PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
PAID
Permit #204
Bollingbrook, IL
Volume
Volume 23,
23, No.
No. 55 September-October
September-October 2008
2008
2
INDUSTRIAL FIRE WORLD
IFW CONTENTS
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2008
Volume 23
Number 5
DEPARTMENTS
21: COVER STORY
FRIENDLY
FIRE
BY ANTON RIECHER
Photo by Anton Riecher
Firefighters attended the annual Industrial Fire School at Texas A&M University in College Station to test themselves against the newest fire ‘prop,’
a replicia of an industrial process unit that boasts 18 duel fuel-leak points.
6: Coming Clean
Engine manufacturers faced with
stringent new EPA standards are
opting out of the fire truck market.
25: A Fire Truck for Trona
A California minerals operation
upgrades to the latest model off
the Ferrara assembly line.
8: Emissions Mandate
To date the impact of new EPA
emissions standards on fire
apparatus remains largely unseen.
28: Temperature Rising
Report attributes an explosion at a
Texas refinery to a cracked pipe.
12: Silent Alarm
A pencil jammed in an alarm
switch contributed to a 2001 fire
aboard a ship loaded with ammo.
16: Failure to Lift
Crane safety makes national
headlines after a refinery accident
that left four workers dead.
18: Proper Respect
Emergency Services Training
Institute initiates new live-fire
process unit training prop.
Publisher
David White
Editor
Anton Riecher
Circulation Manager
Gloria Thompson
Marketing Manager
Lynn White
Associate Editor
Kendra Graf
Marketing Representative
Sherrill Miller
32: Dust to Dust
OSHA slams sugar refiner with
near record fines after blast.
34: Firefighters on Demand
Illinois company specializes in
keeping fire departments staffed.
36: 15 Minutes
Combustion equipment requires
special care by skilled technicians.
39: Decision Pending
State budget crisis may force
Nevada fire academy to close.
Technical Consultant
Louis N. Molino, Sr.
Incident Log Editor
Jason Marsh
Hazmat Contributor
John S. Townsend, Ph.D.
EMS Contributor
Bill Kerney
Education Contributor
Attila Hertelendy
Risk Contributor
John A. Frank
4: Dave’s Notes
By David White
What happens when a simple
system tries to regulate a complex
system? One word — trouble.
17: Industry News
• Federal Signal sells E-ONE
• Alabama fire school renamed
• Ferrara distributes First Attack
• Feds probe Houston fire.
23: Incident Log
40: Risk Assessment
By John Frank
Systems knowledge essential to
adequate emergency preplanning.
41: Focus on Hazmat
By John Townsend
Unintended consequences have too
often negated new regulations.
45: EMS Corner
By Bill Kerney
Big changes are on the way.
46: Industrial Service
Directory
48: Spotlight Ads
49: New Products
INDUSTRIAL FIRE
WORLD®
SINCE 1985
(ISSN 0749-890X)
P.O. Box 9161/540 Graham Rd.
College Station, TX 77842/45
(979)690-7559
FAX (979)690-7562
E-MAIL [email protected]
WEB SITE www.fireworld.com
Industrial Fire World, September-October 2008, Volume 23, No. 5. Industrial Fire World (ISSN 0749-890X) is published bimonthly by Industrial Fire World, Inc., P.O. Box 9161, College Station, Texas 77842. (979) 690-7559. Fax:
(979) 690-7562. E-mail: [email protected]. All rights reserved under International Convention. Copyright © 2007 by Industrial Fire World Inc., all rights reserved. Industrial Fire World is a registered trademark of David White Investments,
Inc., College Station, Texas. The design and content are fully protected by copyright and must not be reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher. Bulk rate postage paid at Fulton, MO, and additional mailing
offices. Subscription rates: USA, one year $29.95, two years $49.95, and three years $59.95; Canada and foreign, add $20 per year postage. Single copies $6. Back issues available at $6 a copy plus postage. Payment must accompany
orders for single copies. All inquiries regarding subscription problems, change of address and payments, call (979) 690-7559. Please allow six to eight weeks for your first subscription copy to be shipped. Please state both old and new
addresses when requesting an address change and notify us at least six weeks in advance. (If possible enclose subscription address label.) Industrial Fire World is edited exclusively to be of value for people in the industrial fire protection
field. Subscriptions are reserved to those engaged in the area of industrial fire protection and related fields or service and supply companies’ personnel. Address advertising requests to Marketing Director, Industrial Fire World, P.O. Box
9161, College Station, Texas 77842. (979) 690-7559. Advertising rates and requirements available on request. Editorial Information: Industrial Fire World welcomes correspondence dealing with industrial fire and safety issues, products,
training and other information that will advance the quality and effectiveness of industrial fire and safety management. We will consider for publication all submitted manuscripts and photographs. All material will be treated with care, although
we cannot be responsible for loss or damage. Submissions should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. (Any payment for use of material will be made only upon publication.) Industrial Fire World assumes no responsibility
for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Industrial Fire World reserves the right to refuse any editorial or advertising material submitted for publication. Information and recommendations contained in this publication have
been compiled from sources that are believed to be reliable and representative of the best current opinion on various topics. No warranty, guarantee, or representation is made by Industrial Fire World as to the absolute validity of sufficiency
of information contained within the publication. Industrial Fire World assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Advertising in Industrial Fire World does not imply approval nor endorsement by Industrial Fire World.
Printed in the USA. CPC publication number 40801529. Postmaster: Send address changes to Industrial Fire World, P.O. Box 9161, College Station, Texas 77842. For subscription inquiries call: (979) 690-7559.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
3
DAVE’S NOTES
Shortsightedness breeds crisis
Trying to regulate
complex systems
using simple ones
By DAVID WHITE
W
hat happens when a
simple system tries to
regulate a complex
system? It seems simple
for our political system
to clear up problems with regulations.
According to Columbia University
Professor Andrew Gelman, a simple system
operates with limited information (rational
ignorance), short time horizons, low
feedback, and poor and misaligned
incentives. Society and society, in contrast,
are complex, evolving, high-feedback,
incentive-driven systems. When a simple
system tries to regulate a complex system
the ultimate outcome can be unforeseen.
We live in a world today challenged by
emergencies that we failed to envision
despite our best science and reason. For
example, in the HazMat column of this issue
you will see how something as simple as
compact fluorescent light bulbs have major
unintended consequences. These are
miniatures of full-sized fluorescents that
serve as a more energy efficient alternative
to the ordinary incandescent bulbs
commonly used. CFLs are four times more
efficient and last up to 10 times longer than
incandescents.
All of this is positive as long as the
contents of CFL bulbs stay out of the
environmental waste stream once the bulb
expires. CFLs contain toxic materials that may
be released if the bulb is broken. Although
household CFL bulbs may legally be
disposed of with regular trash in most states,
they are categorized as household
hazardous waste. Apparently, the impact on
emergency responders who encounter CFLs
at a fire scene never appeared on the DOE
or EPA radar screen, let alone the long term
problems of placing this waste in sanitary
landfills.
There are other examples of such loose
4
thinking. Ethanol sounded like a good idea
until food prices started going up. Some
experts maintain that the Americans with
Disabilities Act has actually resulted in lower
employment levels among the disabled.
Lack of foresight in our drive to deal with
environmental issues is creating other
problems for emergency responders as well.
Our choices with regard to diesel engines for
fire apparatus will soon be severely restricted
thanks to EPA intervention (see page 6). We
are accustomed to a wide range of choices
about the engines we use in our fire engines.
That is about to change dramatically. Soon
there will be only one manufacturer left who
is willing to take on the challenge in light of
the new, more restrictive EPA emissions
standards. Not only will there be a supply
and demand factor at work, but the diversity
of engine sizes and capacity will be severely
curtailed. Engine cost is project to rise from
about $15,000 to as much as $45,000 per
engine. Thank the environmentalists for
scoring another crunch on our economy by
inhibiting the market and prohibiting
firefighters from driving what we need and
want.
Another area where best intentions do not
always translate into better service is
emergency health care. Starting with me, no
one wants less than top notch care when we
have a medical emergency. Hence, the push
to improve the capabilities of EMS personnel
from basic to paramedic. In many instances,
this push has improved the level of care the
public can access. However, there is a
downside. Rural communities and industrial
plants were formerly able to keep a few
paramedics on hand by granting them the
time necessary to get the required training.
But with new training standards requiring
more and more hours of training, the rank of
paramedic in industrial plants has almost
disappeared. People can not be away the
number of hours needed for training to the
new standards, particularly in the more
remote areas where they are most needed.
Once again, the unintended consequences
generate results that reduce the quality of
operations when the intention was to
Continued on Page 33
P.O. Box 9161 • 540 Graham Road • College Station, TX 77842/45 • 979.690-7559
Fax 979.690-7562 • E-mail [email protected] • www.fireworld.com
24th Industrial Fire World Emergency Responder Conference & Exposition
COMPANY SPONSOR FORM
A company sponsorship for the 24th Industrial Fire World Emergency Responder Conference and Exposition offers
general session presentations, free workshops, special demonstrations, product exhibits, recognition in marketing
materials and a time and place to host a company meeting.
Our company commits to support Industrial Fire World, ISTC/BEST Complex, Sabine Neches Chiefs Association and
area industries by assuring the group participation of fire and emergency response managers and personnel. We
recognize that the group rate does not include special fees like certification workshops or the LNG Symposium.
Register each individual at www.fireworld.com using the provided group pass code.
Signature: _______________________________________________________________ Date: ____________
Please type or print
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Bill our company for payment of the group rate checked below:
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Contact person to receive the group code and coordinate individual registration of group members through
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24th Industrial Fire World Emergency Responder Conference & Exposition
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 5
March 23-27, 2009
Holiday Inn Beaumont Plaza ... Beaumont, Texas
APPARATUS
Coming
Clean
Engine manufacturers opt out of the emergency
services market in the face of new, more stringent
EPA emissions standards being phased in by 2010
By ANTON RIECHER/IFW EDITOR
L
egend states that Henry Ford once
said his Model T was available in
any color the public wanted – as
long as it was black. Something
similar can be said for the choices
that fire chiefs will have in fire truck engines
beginning in 2010.
You can have any engine you want as long
as it is Cummins. Behind this radical market
constriction are new EPA emissions standards
being phased in by 2010.
Caterpillar and Detroit Diesel have chosen
to pull out of the emergency services market
and the over-the-road truck market as well,
said fire truck consultant Robert Barraclough.
Mercedes, which owns Detroit Diesel and
Freightliner, is eliminating its Series 60 engines
rather than make them compatible with the new
2010 standards.
“Mercedes will have alternate engines,
probably coming from Germany or Brazil for
their over-the-road trucks – but only theirs,”
Barraclough said. “A new engine is being built
by Detroit Diesel in addition to those from
Germany and Brazil but, again, I understand
they will only be available in Freightliner
products.”
Mack has engines capable of being certified
to the 2010 requirements but so far has been
uninterested in manufacturing “vocational”
engines that could be sold to others for custom
chassis, Barraclough said. Only Cummins has
announced its intention to remain available for
commercial and custom chassis.
Engine changes to fire trucks imposed by
6
new Environmental Protection Agency
emissions regulations beginning in 2007 have
been essentially invisible to the end user so far.
The same will not be true once the complete
set of regulations take effect in 2010, said
Donald Frazeur, Los Angeles City Fire
Department division commander in charge of
supply and maintenance for 1,200 vehicles.
“What we don’t know is how the fire
apparatus industry is going to incorporate these
requirements into their designs,” Frazeur said.
“It is going to have an impact on the engine
doghouse and the ability to provide the cooling
that’s required. So you’re seeing design changes
as we speak.”
Frazeur serves as chairman of the National
Fire Protection Association’s Fire Department
Apparatus Committee. New NFPA
requirements dealing with exhaust issues
stemming from the EPA standards are under
consideration.
As of 2007, the use of diesel particulate
filters (DPF) on diesel engines has been
mandated by EPA to lower emissions as the
first step in phasing in tougher emissions
standards by 2010. An ultra-low-sulfur diesel
fuel must be used with this device. With the
sulfur content in diesel reduced from 500 parts
per million to 15 parts per million, the use of
this fuel presents a variety of problems for
engine manufacturers.
Finding room to add the DPF is hard enough.
By 2010, secondary catalytic reduction (SCR)
emission systems will be mandated on most
chassis, making further serious demands for
space. For example, SCR systems require a
supplementary tank with urea, an organic
compound that fights nitrogen oxide emissions
when injected into a vehicle’s exhaust.
“A urea tank is fairly common in Europe,”
Barraclough said. “They’ve been meeting
standards similar to these for a long time.”
The moment engineers add more complexity
and hardware to the truck, it means encroaching
somewhere else on the vehicle, he said.
“Right now, the size of the primary DPF
has encroached into the pump area and
underneath the cab, both in space and in heat,”
Barraclough said.
For chassis manufacturers, the trick is
finding an efficient way to configure the exhaust
system. Unfortunately, the new EPA
regulations frown upon extensive exhaust
modifications.
“The fire truck manufacturers used to be
able to move exhaust whenever it got in the
way of anything,” Barraclough said. “They’d
just cut and splice and get it done. You can’t do
that anymore. Once you get a chassis that has
an exhaust system you’re probably going to
have to leave it right where it is.”
In a recent issue of the Darley Times
newsletter, W.S. Darley Co. Vice President for
Engineering Mike Ruthy said that a SCR
system would encroach on the Darley pump
house and may be problematic for other brands
of pumps.
“It will take up a lot of extra space, but I
hear Cummins has a ‘design-around’ solution
that accommodates midship pumps,” he said.
Darley midship pumps have a narrow gear
box because of its vertical gear alignment,
meaning less trouble fitting new exhaust
systems, he said. CAFS (compressed air foam
systems) may need to be reconfigured to
accommodate the exhaust, but it would merely
be a matter of mirroring the current design of
the driver’s side instead of the passenger’s side.
PTO (power take off) driven pumps will
be harder to work around, Ruthy said. Unless
chassis manufacturers change to the 3000 EVS
transmission with the top mounted PTO,
options may be limited.
“That said, I cannot say that any chassis
manufacturer has laid down a clear and firm
direction, so I expect some future surprises,”
Ruthy said.
The simple fix would seem to be vertical
exhaust, but that presents its own problems
under special circumstances, Frazeur said. For
instance, what if the truck is parked under a
canopy?
“Rather than just say ‘route it up vertically,’
I think we have to keep the exhaust within a
certain temperature,” he said.
The combustion-ignition cycle of an engine
involves a fixed mass of air being acted upon. A
basic four-stroke diesel cycle consists of
combustion being replaced by heat added to
the air. Exhaust is then replaced by a heat
rejection process that restores the air to its
initial state.
The 2007 EPA standards have increased
total heat rejection between five and 30 percent,
depending on the engine make, model and
power rating. Exhaust gas temperatures can rise
to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit downstream of the
DPF. However, NFPA 1901 standards effective
in 2009 limit tailpipe gas to 851 degrees F.
“NFPA is coming down with added
requirements to deal with some of the changes
in design, particularly with the DPF,” Frazeur
said. “It’s not so much where you put it but
exhaust temperatures are going to be a lot higher.
We’re going to have to regulate these
temperatures so that we’re not driving around
starting grass fires.”
One temperature issue of concern to
firefighters is emissions control by steady state
burn off of particulates. When the emissions
system reaches a certain level of particulates,
the exhaust flow reverses to burn them out.
Under the right circumstances, this burn off
can constitute a fire danger during emergency
operations. Emissions controls will slow or
shut down the engine when a certain level of
emissions is sensed to allow the burn off,
potentially affecting pump pressure at a critical
moment.
“An override on the burn off is one of the
things we are specifying,” Frazeur said. “The
engine doesn’t automatically go into burn off.
The operator has the ability to override if
you’re in a bad spot, such as pumping at a
scene and you’ve got grass up against the
exhaust.”
Requiring an override for fire trucks may
mean obtaining a special exception from the
EPA, he said.
“The EPA has not shown a willingness to
Beginning in January 2007, all
Cummins on-highway engines utilize
exhaust aftertreatment for particulate
control as well as a crankcase
coalescing filter to control crankcase
emissions.
allow us that,” Frazeur said.
Dealing with the heat problem is going to
mean a bigger radiator, among other things. To
gain the space for that added equipment is
probably going to mean a redesign of the cab
interior. But updates such as SCBA integrated
into special seats built to crash standards make
that redesign difficult.
Giving up the custom chassis in favor of a
return to commercial chassis for fire trucks is a
possibility, Frazeur said. Some tough tradeoffs
would have to be made regarding available
space.
“The problem with those apparatus is that
they’re made for over-the-road truckers, not
firefighters,” Frazeur said. “There are design
issues regarding durability and access in an
emergency.”
The most immediate impact is expected to
be larger emergency vehicles in the future, he
said. The cost of the engines to pull these bigger
trucks will probably range between $25,000
and $30,000.
“It looks to me like it is going to impact our
apparatus, especially ambulances,” Frazeur
said. “It looks like our apparatus is going to
grow one to two feet longer.”
C
7
To date, the impact of engine changes
on fire apparatus mandated by the
EPA remain largely unseen
Emissions
MANDATE
Increased engine tunnel heat rejection should not increase under hood
temperatures significantly, but some components may now be closer to
the tunnel. Items like Turbo Chargers now may be required.
By Mark Sackett &
Roger Lackore
8
E
ngine changes to fire trucks in response to new
Environmental Protection Agency emissions
regulations have been essentially invisible to the
end user, a presentation by spokesmen for two leading
fire truck makers states.
With regard to power and torque ratings, engine
offerings remain similar to those offered before the lower
emissions mandated by EPA in 2007, Mark Sackett,
chief engineer for Spartan Chassis, reported.
As of 2007, the use of diesel particulate filters on
diesel engines has been mandated by the EPA to lower
emissions. An ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel must be used
with this device. The new diesel engine standards are
expected to reduce smog-causing nitrogen oxide (NOx)
emissions nearly 2.6 million tons. Soot or particulate
matter (PM) will be reduced by 110,000 tons a year.
With the sulfur content in diesel reduced from 500
parts per million to 15 parts per million, the use of this
fuel presents a variety of problems for engine
manufacturers.
Sackett and Pierce Manufacturing Director of Research
and Development Roger Lackore worked together on a
presentation entitled “Impact of 2007 Engine Changes
on Fire Apparatus” presented in January at the 20th
annual Apparatus Specification & Vehicle Maintenance
Symposium. Sackett focused on power and torque ratings
while Lackore’s contribution dealt with exhaust
aftertreatment.
ENGINE & COOLING SYSTEMS
The combustion-ignition cycle of an engine involves
action to a fixed mass of air. A basic four-stroke diesel
cycle consists of combustion being replaced by heat
addition to the air and exhaust is replaced by a heat
rejection process which restores the air to the initial
state.
According to Sackett, the 2007 engine changes have
increased total heat rejection between five and 30 percent
depending on engine make, model and power rating.
“In most cases, the contribution of heat rejection
between the radiator and charged air cooler has changed
significantly,” Sackett said.
This has meant heat exchanger enhancements. The
radiator and charge-air-cooler now require different core
sizes, new core materials, different fin density and
internal turbulation. For example, the series packaging
cooling system offered by Spartan utilizes a radiator
with a 1,434-inch core area, increased from 1,116 inches.
The core material is now copper instead of aluminum.
The charge-air cooler has increased from 881 square
inches to 941 square inches.
The parallel packaging cooling system offers a radiator
with a 900 square inch core area, up from 600 square
inches. The charge-air cooler has increased from 300 to
500 square inches.
Air flow enhancements to the fan and shroud include
fan size, speed, material, emersion, number of blades
and shroud shape. In Spartan’s series packaging cooling
system, the fan has increased from a 30-inch diameter to
32 inches. The shroud shape is now optimized for fan
emersion. Transmission cooler has moved from the
bottom tank to a separate shell and tube unit.
The parallel packaging cooling system expands the
fan diameter from 28 to 30 inches. Blade depth and
shape has also been changed. Transmission cooler is
changed from air to oil. All cooling system components
are aluminum.
Higher fuel flow rates on certain engines may require
changes in supply and return line size and fuel cooler
restriction. Regarding air intake, certain engines appear
to be more sensitive to air intake temperatures than in
the past. Intake locations have been changed and baffles
have been added to avoid recirculation.
EXHAUST AFTERTREATMENT
Under the heading of exhaust aftertreatment, new leakproof requirements are in place. Leak-proof designs are
mandatory to deal with atomized fuel in the exhaust
pipe during dosing. Spiral-wrap style flex joints have
been replaced with metal bellows to provide a hermetic
all-metal pressure barrier and seal that flexes various
directions. A heavy duty band clamp known as a Marmon
is now used for joints.
Increased engine tunnel heat rejection may be a
problem. Under-hood temperatures should not increase
significantly, but some components may be closer to the
tunnel than before. Items such as turbo charger shields
may be required to protect other components.
Since 2007, all diesel engines are required to have
diesel particulate filters (DPF) to lower emissions. Engine
to DPF insulation is now required by all engine
manufacturers. The DPF itself is insulated, and the area
behind the DPF may require insulation or shielding to
protect body compartments.
Exhaust insulation lowers skin temperature from as
high as 700 degrees Fahrenheit to as low as 200 degrees
F. As insulation, stainless steel mat and silica quilt mat
are the most effective. Header wrap is less effective.
Exhaust gas temperatures can rise to 1,200 degrees F
downstream of the DPF. However, NFPA 1901-2009
limits tailpipe gas to 851 degrees F, meaning that exhaust
diffusers will be needed. As a result, while bright chrome
tailpipes may be offered, do not expect them to stay
bright. Most commercial manufacturers are offering only
limited warranties on chrome due to discoloration from
high temperatures.
Exhaust modifications are mostly frowned upon.
Commercial and custom chassis manufacturers will not
allow exhaust modifications between the engine and the
DPF. Some modifications after the DPF may be
permissible. Modifications between the turbo and the
DPF could cause serious operational problems and a
loss of EPA certification.
Exhaust gas aftertreatment involves a process known
as regeneration. With passive regeneration, no fuel is
added. Regeneration happens on its own when the
temperature is high. With automatic active regeneration,
fuel is added to increase DPF temperature. This puts
the engine in control. Regeneration happens only if
Measuring for exhaust
skin temperature.
9
Names That Once Figured
Prominently in
Diesel Engines
Seagraves •
Americanni
LaFrance •
Ahrens-Fox •
International •
Diesel particulate
filters (DPF) are larger
than the 2006 muffler
and
may
force
compartments to be
blistered or notched.
needed. Manual active regeneration occurs while the
vehicle is stationary and is initiated by the operator.
DPFs must be cleaned between 50,000 and 150,000
miles of use. The middle section of the unit must be
removed to perform cleaning. It also requires special
equipment. As of yet, 2007 engines do not have enough
miles on them to provide experience yet.
CAB DESIGN CHANGES
Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) works by recirculating
a portion of an engine’s exhaust gas back to the engine
cylinders. Engines meeting the 2007 emission standards
have an enlarged profile for larger or dual turbochargers
and additional EGR piping on the engines. For example,
radiator capacity increases by almost 15 percent to
compensate for additional demands on the cooling
system.
To provide the required engine enclosure clearance,
some manufacturers maintain their current cab width
and provide pocketed areas or offset engine enclosures
to provide the required engine enclosure clearance. Some
manufacturers increase cab width to accommodate the
wider engine profiles.
Lackore also addressed the issue of increased engine
tunnel heat rejection.
“Under-hood temperatures should not increase
significantly, but some components may be closer to the
tunnel than before,” Lackore said. “Multi-layered
insulations are available to enhance protection. Thinner
or denser insulations are also being utilized.”
Ground clearance of vehicles may be reduced
dramatically in the area of the DPF. Because a DPF is
larger than the 2006 approved muffler, manufacturers
may be forced to use blistered or notched compartments.
With approximately two inches of clearance for heat
shielding and service access, only 28 inches are available
for compartments or accessories mounted outboard of
the DPF.
Regarding exhaust system packaging, the engine to
DPF pipe cannot be modified by a body builder. This
ensures EPA compliance. The DPF is primarily a straight
exhaust routing installation for most of the larger engines
utilized in custom fire chassis. With the limited flexibility
of the exhaust system piping, vertical exhausts and
specialized installations will have limitations.
10
• Continential
• Waukasha
• Mack
• Ford
• GMC
INDOOR AIR QUALITY
The 2007 EPA regulations place limits on four main
pollutants for diesel engines.
• Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) – 1.2 gm/bhp-hr (grams/
brake horsepower-hour)
• Non Methane Hydrocarbons (NMHC) – 0.14 gm/
bhp-hr
• Carbon Monoxide (CO) – 15.5 gm/bhp-hr
• Particulates – 0.01 gm/bhp-hr
Likewise, OSHA has established indoor air quality
limits as per 29CFR§1900.1000.
• Nitric Oxide (NO) – 30 mg/m3 (milligram per cubic
meter) (eight hour average)
• Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) – 9 mg/m3 (ceiling)
• Carbon Monoxide (CO) – 55 mg/m3 (eight hour
average)
Particulates not otherwise regulated are likewise
restricted.
• Total Dust – 15 mg/m3 (eight hour average)
• Respirable Fraction – 5 mg/ m3 (eight hour average)
These limits are based on a fire truck in a sealed garage
measuring 14 feet by 14 feet by 50 feet. The truck
measures eight feet by nine feet by 40 feet. While idling,
the engine consumes 25 hp. Emissions should be 20
percent nitrogen dioxide and 80 percent nitric oxide.
Testing under these conditions indicates the time by
which OSHA limits are reached varies by the substance
involved. For nitrous oxide, the limit is reached in 15
minutes. For carbon monoxide, the time limit is 16
minutes, while nitrogen dioxide reaches the limit in 18
minutes. It takes almost four hours before the limit on
particulate matter is exceeded.
“Pulling apparatus into a garage bay and shutting
down the engine within a minute or two should never
exceed the OSHA indoor air quality limits,” Lackore
said.
Exhaust extraction should be used if operations
require vehicle engines to be running while indoors.
CONCLUSION
Now that 2007 diesel engines are being installed and
shipped in fire apparatus chassis, manufacturers are
learning more about the impact these engines will have.
While the trucks remain almost the same on the exterior,
firefighters should be aware of changes under the hood.C
11
A pencil jammed in an alarm switch
almost turns an ammunition ship into
a floating bomb
By ANTON RIECHER/IFW Editor
Silent
Alarm
I
magine fighting a fire inside a giant steel oven. Worse, imagine having
to fight that fire blind. Southport (NC) Fire Department volunteer
John Sledge said that describes the conditions responders faced
battling a fire aboard a loaded ammunition cargo ship in July 2001.
“By the time you got five feet inside the (engine room) door, you
couldn’t see your hand in front of your face,” Sledge said.
From gaining access to enduring broiling heat, firefighters overcame
a variety of difficulties and brought the ship fire under control within
six hours. The blaze never came close to reaching the five million pound
cargo of explosives aboard.
“Most of us had little or no experience with shipboard fire fighting,
particularly of this type, so we were in somewhat unfamiliar territory,”
Sledge said.
The Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point, NC, is
the largest ammunition port in the nation and the Army’s primary east
coast deep-water port. For this reason, the 16,000-acre Army-owned
site near the Cape Fear river includes a large undeveloped buffer zone
and huge sand berms for safety, in case of explosion.
Sunny Point is the only Department of Defense terminal equipped
to handle containerized ammunition, as opposed to ammunition loaded
on pallets. The terminal transshipped more than 90 percent of the
resupply munitions sent to and from the Persian Gulf during operations
Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Desert Sortie, amounting to nearly 2.1
million tons of cargo.
At about 4:10 p.m. on July 14, 2001, a fire started onboard the 950foot container ship SSG Edward A. Carter, Jr., while the vessel was
moored at the south wharf of the terminal. Since the fire occurred on a
Saturday afternoon, the explosive cargo was not being handled. Eighteen
of the vessel’s crew were onboard when the fire started.
12
Photo Courtesy of The State Port Pilot
According to a subsequent Coast Guard report, the ship’s second
assistant engineer started a transfer of about 20 tons of heavy fuel oil
from the port and starboard overflow tanks to a central settling tank.
The transfer was left unsupervised other than by automatic equipment.
“Their electronic system measured the tank levels and sounded an
alarm if the preset levels were exceeded,” Sledge said. “If you are starting
to overfill the tanks, it sounds a warning tone.”
Unfortunately, because cables to several tanks had become
contaminated with fuel oil, false alarms had become a repeated nuisance.
The easiest solution was to simply turn off the alarms.
“There was a spring-loaded switch on the control panel that you
held down to acknowledge that the alarm had sounded,” Sledge said. “A
pencil had been jammed into that switch to keep it in the acknowledged
position. It had been that way for months before the fire.”
Fuel oil overfilled the settling tank and began overflowing into the
vent piping connecting it to the main engine mixing tank. The fuel oil
mixed with about one ton of diesel fuel oil, then overflowed into the
venting system for that tank. Eventually, the fuel reached a common
vent chamber tying together the vent systems for all the tanks aboard.
“Because of all the different branches, it is called the Christmas
tree,” Sledge said.
During the two weeks before the fire, repeated difficulties with
transfers of heavy fuel oil had been reported, indicating that the transfer
system was developing blockages that needed to be repaired. The
Christmas tree was a suspected source for those blockages.
“The concern was that rust and corrosion had plugged up some of
these lines,” Sledge said. “So they disassembled parts of it.”
The Coast Guard report states that the chief engineer failed to tag
out the heavy fuel oil transfer pump and associated valves to ensure
that the transfer system remained off-line while the Christmas tree
flanges were disconnected. As a result, the mixed diesel and fuel oil was
forced up through two disconnected lines and spilled one deck above
the main deck.
“The specific area where this happened is called the fidley, which is
like a pipe chase through which the smokestack travels up through the
main deck,” Sledge said. “There are other conduits and various pieces of
equipment found in this pipe chase.”
The mixed fuel cascaded over the 01 level deck, which is one deck
above the main, or weather deck, making contact with the hot auxiliary
boiler exhaust stack several feet away, resulting in ignition. Fire spread
quickly throughout the aft levels of the engine room and inside the
fidley. A witness reported burning globs of fuel oil the size of baseballs
raining down inside the engine room, rapidly expanding the blaze. An
initial attempt to use a dry chemical extinguisher to control the fire
failed.
Other issues compounded the emergency. An initial attempt to start
the main fire pump from the bridge failed, leading to a 10-minute delay
in providing water to crew members battling the blaze. It would be 35
minutes into the fire before a low-pressure CO2 system was activated,
its effectiveness hopelessly compromised by the open portside doors
on either side of the vessel.
“That was allowing a lot of ventilation to get to the fire, allowing it
to grow,” Sledge said. “There were a number of other hatches that had
not been closed to isolate the fire. Smoke spread through the rest of the
ship.”
Two fatalities resulted from the fire. The vessel’s third assistant
engineer was found on the 03 level inside the fidley about 12 feet from
the fire door leading to the galley. The wiper (the most junior engine
room crew member) drowned in the Cape Fear river after jumping
overboard through the open port sideport door to escape the engine
room. Although a crew member tossed the wiper several life rings, he
was unable to reach them before disappearing from sight.
Thick smoke limited access to emergency gear stored where the crew
had been trained to muster. No attempts were made to shut any watertight
or fire doors to form a fire boundary around the engine room. Soon the
fire fighting effort was limited to cooling the main deck and forcing
water down the supply vents.
Sunny Point terminal firefighters arrived within 10 minutes of the
first alarm. At the time of the call, only nine terminal personnel were on
duty, including the dispatcher.
“Fairly shortly after the federal fire department responded they
called the Brunswick County 911 center requesting mutual aid,” Sledge
said. “Our volunteer department is the closest to the terminal. By the
time the emergency was over, every fire department within a fivecounty area had some amount of equipment or personnel there.”
Southport, population 2,300, is an idyllic community near the mouth
of the Cape Fear river that has served as a location for television shows
like “Dawson’s Creek” and several movies. Before the fire aboard the
Edward A. Carter, Jr., the closest thing to marine fire fighting handled
by the volunteer department involved the city’s small boat marina,
Sledge said.
“It’s become less commercial and more tourist oriented now, but we
used to have a lot of commercial fishing boats,” Sledge said. “My
department has been to a lot of boat fires, but the biggest of those was
a 40- or 50-foot shrimp boat.”
That inexperience would hinder fire fighting operation. Any cargo
vessel weighing more than 500 gross tons is required to have an
international shore connection permitting the shipboard fire main systems
to be charged from another source. Unfortunately, an accident damaged
Photo Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard
Within the engine control room, there are visual
and audible alarms, called the Tank Level Indicator,
that actuates when the bilges or any liquid storage,
settling, or service tank has reached a high or low
level. Previous problems with the TLI had resulted
in creative alterations to the system.
13
Photo Courtesy of The State Port Pilot
the hand-wheel controlling the starboard aft end connection.
“Somebody stood up on top of the handle and broke it off,” Sledge
said. “We weren’t able to open that valve.”
The crew failed to alert firefighters responding from onshore that a
second shore connection was available along the port aft end of the
second deck.
Likewise, the ship’s fire control plan was mislaid after an initial
review by firefighters upon arrival. The firefighters were unaware that
a duplicate of the fire plan was kept on the vessel’s main deck.
“We went for hours where they couldn’t find the plans,” Sledge said.
“That didn’t help.”
Key personnel in the Southport VFD could call upon their experience
as industrial emergency responders. The fire chief worked at a nearby
Archer Daniels Midland citric acid plant Sledge was an operator and
shift brigade commander at the two-unit, 1,875 megawatt Brunswick
Nuclear Plant located next to the military terminal.
The first challenge faced by arriving firefighters was gaining access
to the vessel, Sledge said. The open sideport door provided the most
immediate access to the engine room. However, crossing the gap between
the vessel and the wharf would be the first test of courage for the
firefighters.
“They had put down a gang plank between the vessel and the wharf,”
Sledge said. “It was scary crawling across this board 15 or 20 feet above
the water. It was very unstable, what with the movement of the ship
and everything.”
Six firefighters gained access into the engine room with two charged
hoses through the open starboard sideport door. The fire hoses were
charged by fire trucks located on the wharf, which were supplied water
from nearby fire hydrants. Firefighters did not use any of the vessel’s
fire hoses because the pressure was too low.
Once aboard the vessel, the firefighters were reduced to working
blind because of the intense smoke.
“You couldn’t see the fire but you knew what general direction it
was in,” Sledge said. “So we were just shooting water in that direction.
Probably a lot of that water was not effective. You had no way of
knowing.”
Two teams were set up inside the engine room, one on either side of
the engine. The teams used a water and foam mixture to cool the hotspots
which were predominately located below the main engine in the aft
sections of the engine room.
Firefighters used 1,300 gallons of AFFF against the fire. The team
was initially unable to advance through the engine room due to the
intense smoke and heat. Water sprayed into the back of the main engine
14
produced a great deal of steam. Radio contact could not be established
because of the vessel’s metal structure. Firefighters relayed information
to the incident command through a messenger system.
At about 6 p.m. the vessel’s emergency generator failed. After
attempts to restart it failed, firefighters ordered the ship’s crew to
evacuate to shore. By this time, the shoreside fire response included
nearly 150 firefighters from 30 surrounding volunteer, city and county
fire departments.
About 20 minutes later, a 32-foot fire boat from the Wilmington
(NC) Fire Department arrived on scene. The fire boat was directed to
use their monitor to cool the sideshell plating along the port side of the
engine room space and two cargo holds. A fire boat operated by the
terminal was not available until approximately 8 p.m. because it was
only manned during regular business hours Monday through Friday.
Once the terminal’s boat arrived, three monitors delivering 7,500 gpm
were directed to cool the aft end of the engine room exhaust stack above
the main deck.
During most of the fire, the Southport VFD responders found
themselves applying water from a catwalk overlooking the engine room.
“That night after the fire was extinguished and the smoke cleared, I
went back,” Sledge said. “Past the railing you were looking at the top of
the diesel engine. It was a 15- to 20-foot drop in some places.”
Worse than the blindness was the heat, Sledge said.
“It was a matter of just going in and gritting it out,” he said. “It was
the hottest fire I’ve ever experienced. It was like walking into an oven.”
What the Southport VFD lacked in experience it made up for in
equipment. It was the closest department that owned a thermal imaging
camera. Brought aboard after the first 90 minutes of fire fighting, that
camera became an important tool in locating the fire deep in the smokeclogged innards of the burning vessel.
“The camera allowed for better stream placement and foam
application,” Sledge said.
With the camera identifying hot spots, two fire teams were able to
move further in the engine room. The camera identified the highest
concentration of heat right below the main engine.
The fire was declared under control by 10 p.m. and extinguished by
1:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Firefighters with the terminal brigade routinely train in marine fire
fighting. But despite the July 2001 fire, training for marine fire fighting
on the scale this emergency required remained a low priority for most
area fire departments, Sledge said.
“That was literally the one time that I have done anything like that
in the 25-plus years I have been with the department.”
C
15
USCG photo by PA3 Christopher Grisafe
Workers assess damage after a construction crane crashed
atop a floating fuel pier at Auke Bay Harbor, AK.
Crane safety makes national headlines
following accident at Houston refinery
Failure
To Lift
A
ccidents involving construction cranes are not usually
identified in an industrial facility’s emergency action plan
as a specific hazard, said crane expert Matthew Burkart.
Unfortunately, the risk is not usually addressed in the
specific lift plan governing the crane’s operation either.
“I’ve lifted over chemical vessels, nuclear vessels and oil refineries,”
Burkart said. “The lift plan is intended to keep things from going wrong.
The assumption is that if it does go wrong the emergency action plan
16
for the entire site will take care of it.”
Burkart’s comments follow a July 20th accident at a Houston refinery
in which a 30-story-tall crane capable of lifting one million pounds
collapsed, killing four employees of the contractor hired for the specific
lift.
The crane had been assembled to lift the top off a coker unit in order
to replace the drum. However, the collapse occurred prior to that
operation. An investigation is being conducted by the Occupational
Health and Safety Administration (OSHA).
Two high profile construction crane collapses in New York City that
involved fatalities earlier this year had focused attention on crane safety
even before the Houston incident. In the week following the Houston
collapse, fatality accidents involving cranes were reported in Smithville,
TX, and Normal, IL.
Burkart is president of his own consulting firm, Aegis Corporation.
He has been involved in construction litigation and has served as an
expert witness for OSHA and many of the country’s most well-known
law firms. A widely published author, he also serves on American Society
of Civil Engineers construction site safety committee as well as other
committees governing the construction industry.
An industrial fire chief should take an early interest in any big lifts
scheduled for his facility, Burkart said.
“The fire chief should ask a) what is the crane going to be picking up
and b) what is it going to be swinging over?” he said. “These cranes have
a long reach. If you’re reaching over places where people are working
and where there are hazardous materials, you need to give it a second
thought.”
Before a lift is made, a lift plan is formulated. It describes the machine,
its capacity, what is being lifted, where it is going to be picked up from,
where it is going to be set down, the radius the crane will operate within
and a general description of the rigging and all the lifting devices that
might be used.
Emergency response is not usually part of the lift plan, Burkart said.
That is usually left to the facility’s overall emergency action plan.
However, that action plan rarely addresses the specifics of a crane
accident.
“The crane is treated as just another piece of equipment,” Burkart
said.
Given the congested nature of most industrial facilities, avoiding all
risk when developing a lift plan is not always practical, he said.
“You’re going to have to identify the risks, probably pick the least
hazardous and develop your own plan for dealing with that area of the
plant if something does happen,” Burkart said.
ANSI A10 standards govern construction and demolitions operations.
Among Burkart’s current projects is developing an A10 standard for
emergency response plans. Current OSHA crane standards were
promulgated in the agency’s early days and have not changed since the
1970s.
“The real difficulty when a catastrophe occurs on a construction
site is coordinating and controlling what goes on,” Burkart said. “You
have to have someone in charge. But that person may not be in the
construction business or know much about it.”
Too often, the first step taken by emergency responders is to run off
anyone with construction expertise, he said. Construction supervisors
should integrate emergency personnel into the project at an earlier stage.
“Don’t wait until you have an emergency,” Burkart said. “Go down
and grab hold of these rescue people whether they are industrial,
municipal or volunteer firefighters. Get them out to the site to size up
the hazard potential and confer on actions to reduce risks. Take the
opportunity to stage emergency responders in the safe zone.”
C
INDUSTRY NEWS
Federal Signal announces E-ONE sale
F
ederal Signal Corporation (NYSE: FSS), a leader in advancing
security and well-being, announced in July that it has signed a
definitive agreement to sell E-ONE, a manufacturer of fire
apparatus located in Ocala, FL, for approximately $20 million to
American Industrial Partners. AIP has confirmed that E-ONE
management will invest alongside AIP as significant shareholders of the
company. The transaction is expected to close by mid-August. BMO
Capital Markets has acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Federal
Signal on the deal.
Jim Goodwin, interim CEO, stated, “We are pleased to be nearing
completion of this divestiture. The E-ONE employees in Ocala have
been a part of Federal Signal for many years. With a strong management
team led by Peter Guile, and the experience of American Industrial
Partners, I am confident that the future of E-ONE is in good hands and
that they will be able to focus on continuing to build quality, innovative
fire apparatus and growing their customer base. I would like to thank all
of the E-ONE employees as well as the dealers and customers who have
supported E-ONE while it has been part of Federal Signal.”
C
Alabama fire school
assumes new name
First Attack nozzles
wins 1st distributor
T
F
he Oliver Field Emergency Response Training Center near
Mobile, AL, that reopened in April 2007 after being closed
nearly seven years, is now operating under a new name -The Gulf Coast Emergency Response Academy.
Mike McCreary, a co-owner in the company that reopened
the facility, has joined with a new group to buy out control of the
academy, said James W. Kiesling, one of those involved in the
purchase. Kiesling is a captain with the Fire Department of New
York’s special operations command.
The 52-acre site is mainly set up for industrial training but
plans are to expand beyond that, Kiesling said.
“There are numerous haz mat (tanker trucks, rail cars, etc.)
props and numerous confined space entries (above and below
ground),” Kiesling said. “A local steel mill that is currently under
construction has expressed an interest in duplicating some of their
extensive underground system on our site.”
The fire school is built around a four-story industrial mock-up
that can simulate as many as 30 different fire scenarios, including
mishaps involving chemical process, railcar loading, pumps, tanks,
vessels, flanges, overhead pipe rack, acetylene cutting torches and
electrical transformers.
The fire training academy was originally owned by the past
Greater Mobile Industrial Association, a not-for-profit industrial
mutual aid organization.
C
errara Apparatus of Holden, LA, has agreed to serve as
distributor for International Fog Inc.’s First Attack piercing fog nozzle in the southern United States, said First
Attack inventor Eugene Ivy.
Ferrara is the first company to sign up as a distributor of the
First Attack nozzle, a slender device with a stainless steel tip
honed to a 25 degree angle. Behind this piercing tip is a rotating
sleeve made from Kevlar that creates a 30-foot diameter fog pattern.
Available in two, three and four foot lengths, the First Attack
normally operates in a water pressure range between 50 to 225
psi. However, Ivy has tested it at as much as 400 psi.
Ivy, a former Port Arthur, TX, firefighter, designed First Attack for volunteer fire departments with limited manpower and
water resources. It atomizes water into a fog pattern of droplets
sized anywhere between five and 20 microns. The nozzle produces a shield that can reduce the amount of heat reaching the
firefighter by 80 percent.
Ferrara is a leading manufacturer of fire and rescue apparatus.
The company has apparatus in service in 35 major U.S. cities,
China, South America, the Middle East and The Philippines.
“We welcome Ferrara is our first distributor,” Ivy said. “We
are looking for others as well to represent us in other regions of
the U.S.”
C
CSB probes fatal Houston heat exchanger rupture
T
he U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) announced in August that
it is proceeding with an investigation of the causes of a recent
accident at a rubber manufacturing facility in southeast Houston,
in which one employee was killed and seven others were injured,
including contract workers who were exposed to anhydrousammonia.
CSB investigators have now completed two week-long visits to the
plant conducting interviews and gathering other evidence.
The accident occurred on June 11 during a maintenance operation on
a heat exchanger, which used pressurized, liquid ammonia to cool
chemicals that are later processed to make synthetic rubber. The rubbermaking chemicals were pumped through steel tubes inside the heat
exchanger, while ammonia flowed through a cylindrical steel shell that
surrounded the tubes.
The day prior to the accident, the process was shut down for
cleaning. During the shutdown, an isolation valve was closed between
the heat exchanger and a pressure-relief device designed to protect the
heat exchanger from possible over-pressure. On the morning of the
accident, an operator used steam to clean out process piping; the steam
also flowed through the heat exchanger tubes. The steam heated the
liquid ammonia remaining in the exchanger shell which caused the pressure
to build. With the path to the pressure-relief device blocked, the heat
exchanger ruptured catastrophically.
C
17
Photos by Anton Riecher
At far right, the new process unit prop at
TEEX’s Emergency Services Training Institute is fired up. At top, firefighters work their
way up to the top level of the burning prop.
Immediately above, firefighters move against
a ground fire at the base of the unit. At immediate right, a firefighter organizes for the
next test as instructors discuss the first fire.
Emergency Services Training Institute initiates new process unit replicia
Proper
Respect
18
O
n July 14, Brayton Fire Training Field’s new prop – Prop
No. 31/Process Unit – was planned to be used for training
for the first time. It’s the largest live prop on the largest
live-fueled fire training facility in the world.
At approximately 3:50 p.m. – literally seconds after the prop was lit
– the lightning prediction system sounded at the fire field. The prop
was shut down and firefighters on hand to attend the 46th annual Industrial
Fire Training School had to clear the field.
Safety is always the top priority at the Texas Engineering Extension
Service’s Emergency Services Training Institute in College Station, TX.
The lightning prediction system is an automatic signal to clear the field.
“There were a lot of people who were here to see the new prop
burn,” said Ron Peddy, lead safety official. “But, safety is our most
important concern and we can always burn the new prop tomorrow.”
At its highest point, the process unit stands an amazing 66 feet tall
and is a multi-level prop encompassing 21,608 square feet. It boasts six
fixed monitors and burns LPG and E3 fuel.
The project contains 18 dual-fuel leak points, although not all are lit
at once. The valve station controlling the project is 12 feet wide to
accommodate the large number of valves involved. The project can
simulate various scenarios such as a process sump fire, truck-loading
area fire and various other process unit-related emergency situations.
Cost of the new prop exceeded $1 million.
The first test burn on the new prop, which involved fire field
instructors only, was held on June 16. A successful training burn for
instructors was conducted on July 12.
C
19
At top,students
attending the
TEEX Industrial
Fire School at
the Emergency
Services Training Institute deal
with a critical exposure at the
tank and dike
project. Above,
at right, an instructor advises
on connecting a
fire hose. At
right, an instructor supervises a
hose team. Below, a hose team
tackles the tank
and dike project.
Below, at right, a
firefighter suits
up to train.
20
Industrial emergency responders gather for fire training in Texas
Friendly Fire
T
hree million inhabitants of the Caribbean nation of Jamaica
depend on a single refinery, Petrojam Ltd., to provide
their petroleum. For that reason, Sean Soso and other
refinery employees attended the 46th annual Industrial
Fire School at the Emergency Services Training Institute
in College Station, TX.
“The fact is we’re working at a refinery and there is a likelihood of
fire at any time,” Soso said. “We are the first people to respond.”
More than 580 industrial firefighters and safety personnel representing
23 states and 10 countries attended the July fire school held at the Texas
Engineering Extension Service’s Brayton Fire Training Field.
Firefighters from The Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia,
Equatorial Guinea, Jamaica, Mexico, Trinidad and the United States
attended the industrial school.
Brayton boasts more than 100 specific training sites or “props,”
many of them live-fire, fueled training replicas representing everything
from oil tankers to refineries.
Soso said he was a first time visitor to the school. On the first day of
live-fire exercises, he and his Jamaican colleagues trained using the railcar
loading rack prop.
“It is important for purposes of insurance that we be certified under
NFPA 1081 exterior structural fire fighting,” Soso said.
Certification was an important issue to many of the firefighters on
hand this year. Whereas exterior structural fire fighting has been the
chief concern in year’s past, certification under NFPA 1081 interior
structural fire fighting has also become a focus. Joseph Melton, an
operator at the ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, TX, was one such
firefighter.
“Most of us have industrial certification and we had to come get the
interior part to deal with fires inside control rooms, trailers and office
buildings,” Melton said. “It’s an area that we have overlooked in the
past.”
Working beside the students on the fire field are the instructors.
More than 200 highly qualified guest instructors and speakers from
industrial and manufacturing companies trained the emergency responders
through extensive classroom and hands-on exercises.
Melvin Templeton, a safety inspector with Eastman Chemical in
Longview, TX, has helped manage the LPG training prop for five years.
However, he resists being dubbed an expert.
“You’re never an expert,” Templeton said. “If you’ve been in the
21
business 50 years, you’re never an expert. There is always something
you don’t know and need to learn.”
Kevin Parker, an operator at the Marathon refinery in Texas City,
TX, visited the fire school for the first time in three years to obtain his
NFPA 1081 exterior fire fighting certification. A fire marshal for Union
Carbide for 17 years before joining Marathon, Parker formerly served
as an instructor at the industrial fire school.
“It’s good for beginners and it’s also good for senior people,” Parker
said. “You get to go through the different projects and different
experiences. Some of those you can use inside the plant.”
Parker, who also served as a municipal firefighter in Texas City, only
recently joined the fire brigade at Marathon.
“I promised my wife I wouldn’t join,” Parker said. “The next thing
I know somebody told her I was on the fire brigade again.” He said the
couple has since made peace over the issue.
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Above, firefighters move into
position to tackle the pipe
alley project at TEEX’s Emergency Services Training Institute. Above, at right,
firefighters are carefully
monitored for any signs of
heat exhaustion. At immediate right, the first blazing
moments after the railcar
loading project is ignited.
22
INCIDENT LOG
Underline Items Denote Fatality
July 1 – Birmingham, UK: A fire broke out at
a factory in the center of the city.
July 1 – Cedar Rapids, IA: 3 workers were
injured in an accident involving an elevator shaft
at a cereal plant warehouse.
July 1 – Godfrey, IL: A fire in a vacuum
system forced a plastics plant evacuation.
July 1 – Grandview, WA: An electrical fire
spread through a food processing plant.
July 1 – Hardin County, TX: Lightning ignited
a fire in a tank battery at an oil transfer station.
July 1 – Lubeck, WV: A transformer exploded
at a plastics recycling plant.
July 1 – Milford, CN: Firefighters were tested
for toxic exposure after a paint factory fire.
July 1 – Niigata, Japan: Fire broke out in the
dryer ductwork at an ethanol plant.
July 1 – Plock, Poland: A refinery fire injured
2 workers.
July 1 – Sakai, Japan: A small fire near a
crude distillation unit was enough for officials
to shut down production at an oil refinery.
July 1 – Sitra, Bahrain: Fire destroyed a paint
factory.
July 1 – Winchester, KY: A small fire broke
out at a biodiesel plant.
July 1 – Edison, NJ: Trace amounts of
cadmium leaked at an avionics plant.
July 2 – Crystal Lake, IL: Fumes ignited in a
paint booth, severely damaging a plant
specializing in conveyor systems.
July 2 – Louisville, KY: A reaction in a methylmethacrylate railcar triggered a hazmat
emergency at a chemical plant.
July 2 – New Milford, CN: 2 paper mill workers
became ill after being exposed to vapor venting
from a tank of bleach.
July 2 – Newport Beach, CA: A 300-gallon
barrel of overheated hypoxy triggered an
evacuation at an adhesives plant.
July 2 – Savannah, GA: 3 men were injured
in an explosion at an aerospace manufacturer.
July 2 – Wilmington, DE: A worker at an ash
processing plant was trapped 30 feet in the air
by a conveyor belt.
July 2 – York, NE: Fire broke out in the dryer
ductwork at an ethanol plant.
July 3 – City of Industry, CA: A fire broke
out at a plastics plant.
July 3 – Cork, Ireland: Hydrochloric acid
leaked at a fertilizer plant.
July 3 – Elyria, OH: A 4-story factory used
for making sinks was destroyed by fire.
July 3 – Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta: A
storage well at a chemical plant began leaking.
July 3 – Hantsport, Nova Scotia: Fire spread
through the ventilation system at a power plant.
July 3 – Jusuit Bend, LA: 3 contract workers
doing maintenance on an oil refinery steam
line were scalded by a release.
July 3 – Kahna, Pakistan: 1 person died and
11 were injured when a vessel exploded at a
pharmaceuticals plant.
July 3 – Lanesburo, MN: A tanker truck
spilled more than 3,000 gallons of ethanol.
July 3 – Xinjiang, China: 7 people died in an
oil tank explosion.
July 4 – Boode Guarnizo, Spain: Several
explosions were reported at a metals
processing plant.
July 4 – Ferndale, MI: A chemical plant pump
used to transfer polymer disintegrated in use,
triggering an evacuation.
July 4 – Industriepark Hochst, Germany: A
water curtain was used by refinery firefighters
after diphyl fumes were released.
July 4 – Kearny, NJ: An electrical fire at a
power plant sent smoke billowing into the sky.
July 4 – Tarbock Green, UK: A blaze at an
ink factory threatened to ignite highly
flammable solvents.
July 5 – Clinton, PA: Heavy smoke resulted
from a fire at a fertilizer plant.
July 5 – Kerteh, Kuala Lumpur: A flash fire
at a power distribution station shut down a gas
processing plant.
July 5 – Mataura, New Zealand: A wood dust
explosion at a factory injured one worker.
July 5 – Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan: A truck
with 43,000 pounds of dynamite caught fire.
July 6 – Kentland, IN: A fire at a plastics
plant filled the air with acrid smoke.
July 6 – Mitchell, SD: A rail car loaded with
smeltering byproducts began leaking fumes.
July 6 – Muhlenberg, PA: Ammonia leaked
at a dairy plant.
July 7 – Arteixo, Spain: A wildfire threatened
a refinery.
July 7 – Bollene, France: Nearly 8,000 gallons
of solution containing a low level of uranium
spilled at a power plant, entering two rivers.
July 7 – Clyde, OH: An appliance factory
worker suffered a head injury.
July 7 – Kurashiki, Japan: Nearly 250 gallons
of sulfuric acid leaked at an oil refinery.
July 7 – Porto, Portugal: Fire destroyed a
chemical warehouse at an industrial park.
July 7 – Royal City, WA: Several thousand
wood pallets surrounding anhydrous ammonia
tanks caught fire.
July 7 – Tacoma, WA: Partially refined crude
oil spewed from a vent stack when a power
outage shut down a refinery.
July 7 – Taiz, Yemen: An electrical fire spread
through a biscuit factory.
July 7 – West Palm Beach, FL: A concrete
recycling plant worker was trapped beneath
fallen debris.
July 7 – Wheatfield, NY: A furnace fire broke
out at a chemical plant.
July 8 – Belle, WV: Pressure built inside a
tanker car when flammable liquid penetrated
the inner tank.
July 8 – Berngen, Belgium: An explosion
rocked a silo filled with polypropylene powder.
July 8 – Curtis Bay, MD: A contractor repairing
a valve on a sulfuric acid tank at a chemical
plant was sprayed in the face.
July 8 – Greensboro, NC: Fire broke out in a
dumpster at an industrial waste facility.
July 8 – Hoboken, NJ: A dust collector at a
pump valve factory was destroyed by fire.
July 8 – Northampton, PA: A sprinkler
system extinguished a smoke fire at a plant
that processes waste plastics.
July 8 – Omaha, NE: A fire fueled by acetone
For August Incident Logs, Visit www.fireworld.com
broke out at a beauty supply plant.
July 8 – Tonawanda, NY: A grass fire spread
to a large tank of tar at a coking plant.
July 8 – Wells Twp., MI: 2 workers were
burned in a paper mill accident.
July 9 – Alton, IA: A grain dust explosion in
an elevator set fire to 60,000 bushels of corn.
July 9 – Blackpool, UK: Explosions and fire
were reported at a factory.
July 9 – Blount County, IN: A fire broke out
at an aluminum plant.
July 9 – Cedar Rapids, IA: A rail car valve
leaked hydrochloric acid at an agricultural
products plant.
July 9 – Chalan Piao, China: Fire destroyed
a garment factory.
July 9 – Crystal Lake, IL:A fire damaged a
plant manufacturing process equipment.
July 9 – Kingsport, TN: A lightning strike
interrupted production at an ammunition plant.
July 9 – Medellin de Brave, Mexico: A man
received severe burns when an industrial
alcohol warehouse exploded.
July 9 – Morfeklen-Waldorf, Germany: A
phosphoric acid release was reported at a
refinery.
July 9 – North Somerset, UK: Fire erupted
in a paint booth at a plant specializing in molds
and casts.
July 9 – Somerset, UK: Local residents were
evacuated when fire broke out at a factory.
July 10 – Angola, IN: A plant for repackaging
firewood was destroyed by fire.
July 10 – Bastrop, TX: Oil leaking on a hot
power plant turbine ignited.
July 10 – Belgachia, India: Fire broke out in
a heat treatment factory.
July 10 – Burns Harbor, IN: A coke oven at
a steel foundry began leaking carbon
monoxide, forcing workers to evacuate.
July 10 – College Grove, MN: Natural gas
ignited in a heat recovery unit at a power plant.
July 10 – Corpus Christi, TX: The Coast
Guard established a one-mile safety zone after
a vessel released chloride monomer fumes.
July 10 – Hastings, UK: A furniture plant
warehouse burned.
July 10 – Oxnard, CA: A fire in a water cleaning
machine damaged a saw making plant.
July 10 – Port Adelaide, Australia: A small
fire damaged a factory.
July 10 – Red Bay, AL: An auto parts plant
worker was injured when he caught his arm in
machinery.
July 11 – Abilene, TX: A freight company
forklift punctured a 55-gallon drum of acetone
and methyl-ethyl-ketone.
July 11 – Boise, ID: A manufacturing building
at a timber plant was destroyed by fire.
July 11 – Bradford, UK: 2 workers at a food
processing plant suffered flash burns.
July 11 – Gothenburg, Sweden: A small fire
broke out on the roof of a turbine building at a
nuclear power plant.
July 11 – Green River, WY: Fire broke out on
the roof of a soda ash plant.
July 11 – Kiev, Ukraine: 4 workers died when
oxygen tanks exploded at a metals factory.
23
July 11 – Neptune, NJ: An electrician was
injured by a flash fire at an electronics plant.
July 11 – Paterson, NJ: A water tower at a
cable manufacturing plant burned.
July 11 – Rothschild, WI: A sulfur storage
bin caught fire at a power plant.
July 11 – Rye, UK: Flames spread from a
factory spray booth.
July 11 – Seattle, WA: Smoke rose over a
cement plant.
July 12 – Crossville, TN: A tanker crash
spilled titanium tetrachloride on the interstate.
July 12 – Lower Heidelburg, PA: An
aluminum foundry worker doing repair work
died when he fell 12 feet.
July 12 – Melksham, UK: Fire broke out at a
tire factory.
July 13 – Ashland, NY: Fire destroyed a
tannery.
July 13 – Minneapolis, MN: A fire at a
recycling plant threatened nearby buildings.
July 13 – Moscow, Russia: A power failure
triggered a release of gas at an oil refinery.
July 13 – Potter, PA: Zinc oxide fueled a fire
at a metals plant.
July 13 – Sana’a City, Yemen: 1 worker died
and 4 were injured in a gas factory explosion.
July 13 – Starkville, MS: Fire started in a
ventilation system at a furniture plant.
July 14 – Baytown, TX: A small flash fire was
reported at an oil refinery.
July 14 – Elwood, IN: Fire spread through a
paint room at an auto parts plant.
July 14 – Mansfield, LA: Vapor from mixing
paints threatened to ignite at a power plant.
July 14 – New Haven, IN: A stack of 55gallon drums containing hydrofluoric acid
collapsed at a chemical plant.
July 14 – Les Roces, Spain: An explosion
occurred in a sawdust silo.
July 14 – Oak Ridge, TN: Workers evacuated
a waste processing plant when a chemical
reaction produced yellow smoke.
July 14 – Rockdale, Australia: A chemical
spill at a factory forced neighboring businesses
to evacuate.
July 14 – Springfield, MO: Responders were
decontaminated after exposure to onion juice
during a food processing plant fire.
July 14 – Tiffin, OH: An equipment fire broke
out at a furniture factory.
July 15 – Baytown, TX: A small flash fire at
an oil refinery was put out with a steam lance.
July 15 – Camp Taylor, KY: A fire broke out
in two overheated asphalt processing tanks.
July 15 – Elgin, IL: A worker at an aluminum
products plant was splashed with sulfuric acid.
July 15 – Fagras, Romania: 2 people were
missing after an explosion during demolition at
an aggregate plant.
July 15 – Graham, TX: A fire at a plant for
flotation devices severely injured 3 workers.
July 15 – Louisville, KY: A fire at an asphalt
plant produced thick smoke.
July 15 – Marion, PA: An explosion rocked a
fireplace manufacturer.
July 15 – Panaktos, Greece: A forest fire
threatened a munitions plant.
July 15 – Port Arthur, TX: A refinery reported
a hydrogen sulfide leak.
24
July 16 – Arjun Nagar, Pakistan: An
ammonia release followed an explosion at an
ice factory.
July 16 – Athens, Greece: 3 factories
producing timber products and auto parts
were destroyed by a forest fire.
July 16 – Bedfordshire, UK: A factory for
Formula One racing cars caught fire.
July 16 – Inoi, Greece: A forest fire threatened
a munitions factory.
July 16 – Kaesong, N. Korea: A worker died
when a steel frame at an industrial complex
collapsed.
July 16 – Kenly, NC: An evacuation was
ordered when vapor escaped from a tanker
truck hauling silicon tetra fluoride.
July 16 – Lynchberg, VA: Baling equipment
caught fire at a corrugated cardboard factory.
July 16 – Miami, FL: A concrete recycling
plant worker was crushed to death by a loader.
July 16 – Solihull, UK: Fire destroyed a plant
that mades curtains and blinds.
July 16 – Tullamore, Ireland: Sprinklers
contained a fire at a candle factory.
July 17 – Butte, MT: An acetylene tank
caught fire at a metal processing facility.
July 17 – Coldwater, MI: Fire broke out in the
furnace room of a brake parts plant.
July 17 – Shanghai, China: Three firefighters
died battling a plastics factory blaze.
July 18 – East Bridgewater, MA: An electrical
fire broke out at a meat packing plant.
July 18 – Grand Blanc, MI: A sulfuric acid
tank exploded at a factory.
July 18 – Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand:
Flames from a cold storage facility threatened
an ammonia plant.
July 18 – Leggiuno, Italy: An explosion
occurred at a hydrogen peroxide maker.
July 18 – Perris, CA: A plastics recycling
worker died when he was pulled into the
rotating blades of some heavy equipment.
July 18 – Saginaw County, MI: A pipe
ruptured at a semi-conductor plant, releasing
silicon vapor.
July 18 – Stamford, CN: A fire at a pool
chemicals warehouse resulted in 13 police
officers being treated for toxic exposure.
July 18 – Williston, FL: Fire erupted at a
water bottling plant.
July 19 – Essex, UK: A press drying machine
caught fire at a printing plant.
July 19 – Harrison Twp., PA: A 3-hour blaze
broke out at a specialty metals manufacturer.
July 19 – Ludwigstad, Germany: A fire broke
out in a filtering unit of a melting furnace at a
metallurgical plant.
July 19 – Rush Twp., PA: Several firefighters
suffered heat exhaustion at a manufacturing
plant specializing in aluminum flake pigment.
July 19 – St. Charles, IL: Fire spread through
the high rack storage in a chemical plant
warehouse.
July 20 – Frisco, TX: Fire broke out at an
electronics plant.
July 20 – Jundiz, Spain: A worker at an
industrial products plant was struck by a cover
flung during an explosion.
July 21 – Betim, Brazil: A fire broke out at an
oil refinery.
July 21 – Chignik Bay, AK: Fire gutted a
seafood processing plant.
July 21 – Lafourche, LA: An ammonia leak
at a shrimp processing plant halted traffic
nearly 3 hours.
July 21 – Louisville, KY: Production resumed
shortly after a fire at a bakery plant.
July 21 – Manchester, UK: At least 1 gas
cylinder detonated during a lengthy fire at a
pallet factory.
July 21 – Mildred Lake, AB: An oil refinery
worker collapsed while inside a vessel used
to clean hydrocarbons.
July 21 – Minas Gerais, Brazil: A fire broke
out in a delayed coker at an oil refinery.
July 21 – Mount Pleasant, TX: A firefighter
received minor injuries from a fire at a food
processing plant.
July 21 – Muskegon County, MI: A major
highway was closed when ethanol spilled while
an overturned tanker was being emptied.
July 21 – Paso Robles, CA: An outbuilding at
a chemical plant caught fire.
July 21 – Salix, IA: A worker at an agricultural
plant died when he was buried in soybeans.
July 21 – Thibodaux, LA: An ammonia leak
at a seafood processing plant closed down
area traffic for three hours.
July 22 – Columbia, TN: An overturned
tanker leaking argon injured two people.
July 22 – Esmeraldas, Ecuador: A gas leak
at a refinery caused concern.
July 22 – Martinsville, VA: Fire broke out at
a furniture finishing plant.
July 22 – Mt. Clemens, MI: A solvent spill
disrupted operations at a car finishes plant.
July 22 – Naperville, IL: A dust system caught
fire at a plant specializing in plastic coloring.
July 22 – Schwarza, Germany: A chemical
tank exploded at a metalworking plant.
July 22 – Toowoomba, Australia: Fire
spread inside an 80-ton grain silo.
July 22 – Toronto, ON: Corrosive hydrogen
peroxide leaked from a storage tank at an
empty dye plant.
July 23 – Almelo, Netherlands: An explosion
rocked a plant where centrifuges for
separating uranium were made.
July 23 – Detroit, MI: An auto plant employee
was crushed to death by machinery.
July 23 – Mt. Eden, New Zealand: Fire broke
out at a foundry for precious metals.
July 23 – Offenbach, Germany: A rail tanker
leaked crotonaldehyde in a freight station.
July 23 – Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles:
Fire broke out in an oil refinery distillation unit.
July 23 – York, PA: A transformer at a nuclear
power station caught fire.
July 24 – Auckland, New Zealand:
Firefighters may have been exposed to arsenic
during a fire at a metals factory.
July 24 – Cameron, TX: Fire broke out at a
pipe plant.
July 24 – Fort McMurray, AB: A pipeline at a
tar sands operation was vandalized.
July 24 – Harmattan, AB: A fire in a heater
closed a natural gas extraction plant.
July 24 – Porvoo, Finland: Phosphoric acid
leaked from a corroded valve at an oil refinery.
An isolated industrial facility in southeast California buys a new
fire truck. The result is better fire protection for the entire region.
A Fire Truck for Trona
Photo courtesy of Searles Valley Minerals
A
cross California is a chain of dry pleistocene lakes which
were formed during the Ice Ages. Today, the lake bed
near Trona, CA, contains a plethora of sodium and potassium minerals of the carbonate, sulfate, borate and
halide classes, due to long sedimentation and evaporation processes, which occurred over a period of about 150,000 years.
Ed Townsend, chief of emergency services at the Searles Valley
Minerals Operations in Trona, said it feels like it took almost that long
to get an okay for his new Ferrara Intruder II pumper, collected fresh
off the assembly line in early August.
“I was using a 1986 Boardman pumper that held 750 gallons of
water and pumped 1,250 gallons per minute,” Townsend said. “It seated
Above, the Searles Valley Minerals plant in Trona, CA. At
left, the new truck delivered to Trona in August. Below, at
left, the truck early in construction at Ferrara. Below, the
truck nearly finished.
Truck photos courtesy of Ferrara
25
Work in progress on the
new Trona fire truck. Ferrara
customers are able to
check the current status of
work on their vehicles visually via the Internet.
Photo courtesy of Ferrara
about two large people, and that was all.”
By comparison, Townsend’s new Ferrara seats five firefighters.
Built from heavy duty extruded aluminum, it boasts a 400 horsepower
Cummins ISL-400 engine, an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission
and a single stage Waterous CSU pump capable of 1,500 gallons per
minute. The pumper comes with a 1,000 gallon water tank and a 20
gallon foam tank.
“There aren’t a whole lot of extras, but it’s sure a lot nicer than what
we’ve got,” Townsend said.
Searles Valley Minerals manages extensive operations in California’s
Searles Valley. Power and production facilities cover more than 339
acres at the Argus, Trona and Westend plants. Of these three, the
Trona facility is the oldest, dating back to 1916. It uses a solvent
extraction method to recover boric acid from weak Searles Lake brines.
“We pump the brine out of the dry lake bed to get the salt crystals
we need,” Townsend said. “From that, we recover sodium sulfate and
boron products.”
In addition to boric acid, the Trona facility produces anhydrous
borax containing low sulfate values and borax decahydrate.
“We have our own coal fired boilers, so we are self sufficient for
energy,” Townsend said. “We employ about 650 employees, and 100
contractors.”
Protecting the Trona plant is a fire rescue and hazmat team consisting
of 34 volunteers. Townsend, an 18-year veteran of the plant fire brigade,
has served as chief for the last eight. He said it was obvious that the
time had come to replace his former pumper.
“We’ve thrown money at it and more money at it,” Townsend said.
“Finally, it came down to repairing the pump again. I said, ‘Wait a
minute – let’s stop throwing money at this and get something we can
really use.’”
The local challenge is not limited to industrial fires. The Trona
brigade has a mutual aid agreement with the San Bernardino County
Fire Department. At 20,160 square miles, San Bernardino County is
the largest county in the continental United States. The fire department’s
jurisdiction encompasses 18,353 square miles of extremely diverse
environments that stretch from the Los Angeles County line on the
26
west, to the Colorado River on the east, to the Nevada State line and
Kern and Inyo counties on the north.
Trona is only one of 53 communities that the San Bernardino County
Fire Department serves. That results in the brigade responding to as
many as eight structural fires a month. Trona, population 1,885, has
been losing residents for many years, resulting in a large number of
unoccupied houses.
Searles Valley Minerals also has a mutual aid agreement with a nearby
coal-fired power plant that serves as a public utility.
Beside the new pumper, the Trona brigade operates two brush units
referred to as “squad and rescue” units, each carrying 300 gallons of
water. One of the trucks is kept in Trona near Townsend’s office and
another is kept at a Searles Valley Mineral facility six miles away.
Townsend’s brigade trains weekly. In addition, Townsend brought in
Baton Rouge, LA – based Roco Rescue, specialists in confined space
and rope rescue training, to conduct two 100-hour classes for the
volunteers.
“We have everyone on the brigade certified,” Townsend said. “We
get together for rescue training twice a month for six hours and for fire
training twice a month for four hours per session. We also do 50 hours
a year of hazmat training.”
All of the Trona firefighters are certified as Firefighter I in the state
of California. Townsend himself has attended training in industrial fire
fighting at Emergency Services Training Institute in College Station,
TX.
As for large scale training exercises, the Trona volunteer gets together
with the county firefighters when possible, Townsend said. Often joining
them are firefighters from the Navy’s single largest facility, the China
Lake Naval Weapons Center, located about 20 miles away. The center is
dedicated to airborne weapons testing and training.
Trona’s new fire truck came close to its first emergency even before
it left the Ferrara plant in Holden, LA. Tropical Storm Edouard,
threatening the Gulf Coast, concerned Searles Valley Minerals when
Townsend visited Holden to pick up the finished truck.
“They said bring it straight back here as safe as you can,” Townsend
C
said.
27
FINAL REPORT
February 2007 refinery blast attributed to cracked piping
Temperature Rising
A
massive fire that injured four workers and caused the legs can pose special hazards in refineries that should be carefully
total shutdown and evacuation of a refinery in Sunray, managed.” Holmstrom said the refinery (then owned by another
TX, in February 2007 likely occurred after water leaked company) did not identify hazards arising from the dead-leg when it
through a valve, froze and cracked an out-of-service was created in the 1990s and did not implement safeguards, such as
section of piping, causing a release of high-pressure liquid removing the piping, isolating it from the process using metal plates
propane, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said in a final known as blinds for protecting it against freezing temperatures.
investigation report issued in July.
Over time, water seeped past the leaking valve and built up inside
The CSB’s final report concluded the root causes of the accident the low point of the piping elbow. A period of cold weather in early
were that the refinery did not have an effective program to identify and February 2007 likely caused the water to freeze, expand and crack the
freeze-protect piping and equipment that was out of service or piping. On Feb. 16, the daytime temperature increased and the ice
infrequently used; that the refinery did not apply the company’s policies began to melt. At 2:09 p.m., high-pressure liquid propane flowed through
on emergency isolation valves to control fires; and that industry and the leaking valve and was released through the fractured elbow.
company standards did not recommend sufficient fireproofing of Investigators estimated that propane escaped from the pipe at an initial
structural steel against jet fires.
rate of 4,500 pounds per minute, quickly creating a huge flammable
“This was a significant accident that seriously burned three people, vapor cloud, which drifted toward a boiler house where CSB investigators
shut down a major oil refinery for two months, and contributed to believe it contacted an ignition source.
gasoline shortages hundreds of miles away in Denver,” said CSB
“Once the fire started, there was no way to shut off the supply of
Chairman John Bresland. “The CSB investigation points to a number of fuel because the refinery had not implemented company procedures
areas where oil industry practices should be improved to reduce the requiring the installation of remotely operable shutoff valves,”
likelihood and the severity of process-related fires. Fireproofing, remotely Holmstrom said. “Such valves are especially critical in high-pressure
operable shutoff valves, and effective water deluge systems can spell service to prevent large inventories of flammable material inside process
the difference between a small, quickly
contained fire and a massive blaze that
cripples a large industrial facility.”
The fire occurred in the refinery’s
propane de-asphalting unit, which uses
high-pressure propane as a solvent to
separate gas oil from asphalt; gas oil is
used as a feedstock in other gasolineproducing refinery processes. The
propane leaked from an ice-damaged piping
elbow that was believed to have been out
of service since the early 1990s, CSB
investigators said. Unknown to refinery
personnel, a metal object had wedged under
the gate of a manual valve above the piping
elbow, allowing liquid to flow through the
valve. Piping above the valve contained
liquid propane at high pressure, and small
amounts of water were entrained in the
propane.
“The elbow was part of a ‘dead-leg’
formed when the piping was taken out of
service,” said CSB Investigations
Supervisor Don Holmstrom. “This was a
section of piping that remained connected
Photo Courtesy of U.S. Chemical Safety Board
to the process but was not intended to
have any flow of liquid through it. Dead- Surveillance video reveals the emergency scene 90 seconds after the first alarm.
28
29
equipment from contributing to a
fire.”
The growing fire caused the
failure of a pipe flange on a large
extractor tower filled with propane,
igniting a powerful jet fire that was
aimed directly at a major pipe bridge
carrying liquid products throughout
the refinery. Because the pipe bridge
supports were not fireproofed, they
quickly collapsed, severing process
pipes that were essential to the
operation of the refinery.
Company and industry standards
“require fireproofing of structural
steel supports up to a maximum of
50 feet from possible fuel sources,”
Holmstrom said. “The collapse of a
non-fireproofed pipe bridge 77 feet
away from the source of the jet fire
indicates that industry practices
need to be revised.”
The fire also caused the release
of an estimated 5,300 pounds of
toxic chlorine from three one-ton
cylinders stored 100 feet from the
fire. The chlorine, used to disinfect
cooling water, could have posed a
serious threat to emergency
responders had they not already
been evacuated, investigators said.
In addition, the fire threatened a
large spherical tank that contained
up to 151,000 gallons of highly
flammable liquid butane. As a result
of the growing fire, the valves
controlling a water deluge system
designed to cool the sphere became
inaccessible to operators and could
not be opened.
“The consequences of this
accident could have been even more
serious, under slightly different
circumstances,” Bresland said.
“Refineries should minimize the
Photo courtesy of U.S. Chemical Safety Board
presence of hazardous substances Crack found in the 10-inch diameter propane mix control station inlet elbow at Sunray.
near units where they may be
exposed to fire hazards and should ensure that emergency systems alternatives such as bleach. The CSB also recommended that refinery
remain operable if a disaster strikes.”
staff work with United Steelworkers, which represents employees at
The CSB made recommendations to the American Petroleum Institute the plant, to upgrade hazard analysis procedures.
(API), a leading oil industry trade association that develops safety
The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating
practices that are widely followed in the U.S. and overseas. The CSB industrial chemical accidents. The agency’s board members are appointed
called on the API to develop a new recommended practice for freeze- by the president and confirmed by the Senate. CSB investigations look
protection of refinery equipment and to improve existing practices into all aspects of chemical accidents, including physical causes such as
related to fireproofing, emergency isolation valves and water deluge equipment failure as well as inadequacies in regulations, industry
systems. The report also called on the refinery’s owner to improve standards and safety management systems.
freeze protection, fireproofing, hazard analysis and emergency isolation
The CSB does not issue citations or fines but does make safety
procedures at its 16 North American refineries.
recommendations to plants, industry organizations, labor groups and
The CSB urged the refinery to implement its strategic plan to eliminate regulatory agencies such as OSHA and EPA. Visit the CSB Web site at
C
the use of chlorine for water treatment in favor of inherently safer www.csb.gov.
30
Incident
Continued from Page 24
July 24 – Toledo, OH: A smoky fire broke out
at a recycling plant.
July 24 – Tronchiennes, Belgium: A tanker
truck filled with acid rolled on its side.
July 24 – Torgan, Germany: 2 workers were
severely burned in an explosion at a wood
pellet plant.
July 25 – Brimingham, UK: Fire broke
through the roof of a factory.
July 25 – Bridgeton, NJ: A worker fell from
the roof of a textile plant.
July 25 – Jefferson County, OH: Machinery
caught fire at a power plant.
July 26 – Bethlehem Twp., NJ: A worker
suffered serious injuries when machinery
exploded at a plastics processing plant.
July 26 – Calvert City, KY: An explosion at a
chemical plant caused no injuries.
July 26 – Hunterdon County, NJ: A plastics
plant worker was burned in an explosion.
July 26 – Marquion, France: Traffic was
interrupted for six hours when nitric acid was
discovered leaking from a tank truck.
July 26 – Newcastle, UK: A fire at a packaging
plant sent company shares tumbling.
July 26 – Nelson, New Zealand: Fire
destroyed a bitumen plant.
July 26 – Phoenix, AZ: A parked tanker truck
caught fire at a plant specializing in rubberized
asphalt.
July 26 – Surrey, UK: Fire spread through a
plant specializing in pharmaceutical packaging.
July 27 – Bucharest, Romania: An explosion
in a sawdust dryer at a wood processing
factory injured 23 people.
July 27 – Gardner, MA: Fire broke out at a
furniture factory.
July 27 – New Orleans, LA: A massive oil
spill into the Mississippi River shut down river
traffic for days.
July 27 – Potter Twp., PA: A fire broke out at
a zinc plant fire.
July 27 – San Bernardino, CA: A machine
that injects preheated dye into plastic caught
fire at a plastics manufacturing plant.
July 28 – Henley, UK: Heavy smoke made
extinguishing a fire at an air conditioning plant
difficult.
July 28 – Hillsville, VA: Fire broke out at a
textile plant.
July 28 – Lenoir, NC: A fire shut down a wood
panel plant.
July 28 – Mina Abdullah, Kuwait: Six
workers were injured in a refinery fire.
July 28 – Palm Beach, FL: Firefighters used
dry chemical to extinguish a magnesium fire
at a metal recycling plant.
July 28 – Port Neches, TX: Fire broke out at
a chemical plant.
July 28 – Richmond, CA: A sulfuric acid spill
at an oil refinery caused no injuries.
July 28 – Rockaway Twp., NY: 2 workers
were splattered with hot plastic from a machine
used to make disposable trays.
July 28 – Ulsan, S. Korea: A researcher died
in a laboratory explosion at a chemical plant.
July 29 – Brownsville, NY: Fire erupted in
the ceiling of a fiberboard manufacturing plant.
July 29 – Hamilton, TX: Fire broke out in the
dust control unit at a molding mill.
July 29 – Iowa City, IA: Fire ignited on the
roof of a detergent factory.
July 29 – Kitakyushu, Japan: A conveyor
belt fire spread to a steel plant.
July 29 – Laurel County, KY: A security
guard at a waste management company died
when a heavy iron security gate fell on him.
July 29 – Loves Park, IL: An equipment fire
at a machining plant spread through the facility.
July 29 – Owego, NY: Fire tore through a
recycling plant.
July 29 – Pori, Finland: A storage building at
a hardboard factory caught fire.
July 29 – Port of Vancouver, WA: A
smoldering fire spread through a hopper at a
malting plant.
July 29 – Prince George County, MD: A
power plant fire injured one worker.
July 29 – St. John, New Brunswick: A brief
fire at an oil refinery lit up the skies.
July 29 – Tomahawk, WI: 3 workers
performing maintenance atop a fiber storage
tank at a paper mill died in an explosion.
July 29 – Wisconsin Rapids, WI: A paper
31
Photos courtesy of OSHA
Photos taken by OSHA investigators
showing the depth of sugar dust found
at a Gramercy, LA, sugar refinery.
February sugar refinery blast
results in near record fines
Dust to
Dust
32
I
n the wake of a February 7 explosion that killed 13 workers at a sugar refinery
near Savannah, GA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) issued citations in July proposing penalties totaling $8.7 million
against a Sugarland, TX-based company and its two affiliates, the third largest
fine in OSHA history.
More than $5 million of the proposed fines were for violations at the Port
Wentworth, GA, refinery. OSHA added nearly $4 million related to inspections
at the company’s Gramercy, LA, refinery following the February explosion.
“I am outraged that this company would show a complete disregard for its
employees’ safety by knowingly placing them in an extremely dangerous work
environment,” said OSHA Assistant Secretary for Labor, Edwin G. Foulke, Jr.
Despite the explosion at Port Wentworth, the company has done little to
ensure abatement of the combustible dust hazards at its other plant, he said.
“If OSHA investigators had not inspected and posted an imminent danger
notice regarding areas at the second plant, the same thing could have happened
again,” Foulke said. That notice resulted in a temporary shut-down of the mill.
The company filed a notice that it intends to fight the citations.
OSHA inspections at both facilities found that there were large accumulations
of combustible sugar dust in workrooms, on electrical motors and on other
equipment. The investigation also determined that officials at the company
were well aware of these conditions but took no action.
At the Gramercy refinery alone, accumulations on the workroom floor were
measured as deep as 48 inches.
Officials theorize that cumulative sugar dust inside the packaging elevator of
one of three silos caught fire. Speculation is that a bucket came loose from the
elevator system, igniting the suspended sugar. A second explosion in the silo
gallery and tunnel spread to the packaging house and adjacent building.
Aside from the fatalities, 40 workers were injured.
The citations included 108 instances of willful violations related to the
combustible dust hazard. A willful violations was defined as a violation committed
with plain indifference to, or intentional disregard for, employee safety and
health. OSHA also issued 10 citations for other willful violations and 100 citations
for serious violations.
The largest fine in OSHA history was $21.3 million issued against a major oil
company after an explosion on March 23, 2005, at its Texas City, TX, refinery.
That explosion killed 15 people and injured more than 170 others. The second
largest fine was against a Louisiana fertilizer company in 1991 after an explosion
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that killed eight workers and injured 128 others.
Incident
mill employee who suffered burns was
transported by helicopter.
July 30 – Biblis, Germany: A crane struck a
utility line at a nuclear power plant, triggering a
shutdown.
July 30 – Brisbane, Australia: A gas leak at
a food processing plant sent six people to the
hospital.
July 30 – Byram, MS: An explosion and small
fire were reported at a plant that extracts oils
from various materials.
July 30 – Catoosa, OK: Fire broke out at an
industrial coatings plant.
July 30 – Chicago, IL: A candy plant worker
was crushed to death by a pallet mover.
July 30 – Clydach, UK: An auto suspension
plant damaged by fire is expected to be closed
for months.
July 30 – Columbia, SC: Sparks ignited a
gas line at a steel factory.
July 30 – Hartford, CN: A small fire broke out
at a trash-to-energy power plant.
July 30 – Jackson, MS: A fire broke out at a
plant that processes grease from fast food
restaurants.
July 30 – Javene, France: A worker at a
hazmat disposal plant suffered burns when
waste being handled reacted.
July 30 – Indiantown, FL: A fuel pressure
line ruptured at a power plant, causing a small
fire.
July 30 – LaPlace, LA: A worker died when
he was pinned by a truck at a steel plant.
July 30 – Lee, MA: An equipment explosion
at a plate glass factory injured two.
July 30 – Richmond, KY: Fire damaged a
battery plant.
July 30 – Rock Hill, NC: Fire forced the
evacuation of a carbon fibers plant.
July 30 – Seoul, S. Korea: Lightning triggered
a fire in a crude oil storage tank.
July 30 – St. George, Australia: A chocolate
factory was destroyed by fire.
July 30 – Summerside, UK: A generating
engine at a power plant caught fire.
July 31 – Almaty, Kazakhstan: An oil spill
briefly halted production at a steel plant.
July 31 – Bitola, Macedonia: A power plant
fire was quickly extinguished.
July 31 – Busalla, Italy: Fire engulfed an
atmospheric distillation column.
July 31 – Cardon, Venezuela: An oil refinery
electrician was burned by a high voltage shock.
July 31 – Durham, UK: A tractor plant worker
hurt his back in a fall.
July 31 – East Lothian, UK: A worker was
sprayed with chemical from a burst drum at a
recycling center.
July 31 – Jaranwak, Pakistan: Seven
workers were critically injured when fire broke
out following an explosion in a textile mill boiler.
July 31 – Moorabbin, Australia: A forklift
ruptured a high pressure gas line at a factory
making construction materials.
July 31 – Palmasola, Bolivia: More than
80,000 gallons of diesel spilled from a ruptured
pipeline at a refinery.
July 31 – Parkgate, UK: A steelworker
became trapped underneath a cooling bed.
July 31 – Pensnett, UK: An office fire broke
out at a factory.
July 31 – Plano, TX: Fire from a storage silo
incinerator spread to the roof of a paper
processing plant.
July 31 – Rochester, NY: Two workers at a
metal recycling plant suffered smoke
inhalation.
July 31 – Shelbyville, IN: Fire broke out in a
new warehouse at an insulation manufacturing
plant.
July 31 – Spokane Valley, WA: Cardboard
ignited at a recycling plant.
July 31 – Taunton, MA: Flames broke out at
a recycling plant.
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Dave’s
Notes
improve them.
These examples leads to an important question for emergency responders —
will the failure to think issues such as these through to their potential ultimate
conclusion pose a greater danger in the future? The challenge is enhanced by
today’s emergency responders’ more limited hands-on experience with the broad
range of potential disasters that still rank among the less likely but still possible.
Our planning and training must identify new emerging hazards, even from familiar
sources, and thinking through “What if?”
As environmental issues become increasingly important it becomes more and
more critical for both researchers and practitioners to understand what are these
indirect impacts and the directions these indirect environment impacts will compel
business and economies to move towards. It sets an agenda for future research.C
2009 IFW Emergency Responders Conference & Expo
March 23 - 27th • Beaumont, TX
33
Illinois company specializes in keeping fire departments
fully staffed with certified professional responders
Firefighters
On Demand
Photo Courtesy of Kurtz
Above, Kurtz firefighters
tackle a live-fire training
prop to keep their certification current.
34
W
hen industry contracts with
an outside company for fire
protection, it usually means
the plant fire brigade is
reorganized to suit the
company taking charge.
However, Kurtz Industrial
Fire Services, based in the Chicago area, seeks to work
with the organization in place.
Kurtz President and CEO Tom Vana said his
company provides trained fire fighting personnel that
supplement existing industrial fire brigade operations.
Kurtz employs more than 100 industrial firefighters
working for six industrial sites in four different states.
Proposals are on the table to add two more industrial
sites to the Kurtz list. In total, Kurtz employs more
than 300 firefighters when its 16 Chicago-area
community fire departments are included.
The advantage to industry is that Kurtz carries the
load with regard to paperwork.
“We handle all the wage and benefits, liability,
workers comp and employment practices part of the
business,” Vana said. “Our clients simply pay us a
flat fee to provide them X amount of personnel.”
Industry in major cities often has the option of
participating in a mutual aid organization that unites
various fire brigades for the common good. The same
is not always true for plants and refineries operating
in remote locations across the Midwest and other areas
of the country,” Vana said.
“These plants may be isolated but they have good
infrastructure in place,” Vana said. “They also have
good leadership. We provide them with the firefighters
to follow that leadership.”
Kurtz started as a private ambulance service in 1977,
he said. The move into fire fighting came in the mid-
1980s.
“In 1984, the Chicago area had a great push for fire
departments to have a contractual arrangement so they
could utilize our personnel to provide firefighters and
EMS services,” Vana said. “Then, in 1999, the fire
chief of a major refinery approached us about
providing industrial fire protection.”
The biggest difference in recruiting industrial
firefighters is that while fire fighting experience is
required, it is not always possible to hire personnel
with first-hand knowledge of industrial fire fighting.
The minimum requirement was an Illinois State
Firefighter II certificate.
“Because of the inherent risks in a refinery, an
industrial firefighter should also be a state licensed
EMT-B at a minimum before they come on board
with us,” Vana said.
Utilizing various fire fighting schools such as
Refinery Terminal Fire Company in Corpus Christi,
TX, Emergency Services Training Institute in College
Station, TX, and the University of Nevada, Reno Fire
Science Academy near Elko, NV, Kurtz firefighters go
through an extensive 12-week training program before
ever going into a plant.
Retired refinery Fire Chief Dale Pirc recently took
charge of the Kurtz Consulting and Training Division.
His mission is to have all Kurtz employees NFPA
1081 ProBoard certified.
“One important thing to remember is that the people
Tom is providing are not intended to replace employees
in their existing emergency response organization,”
Pirc said. “It’s meant to supplement the existing
organization and provide a good quality core
organization.”
A frequent problem for mandatory brigades is job
turnover, Pirc said. For example, someone who works
in the laboratory is designated as driver of a
fire truck. Despite the time and effort to train
that person to a sufficient level, all that may
well be lost when the lab assistant transfers to
another position that does not require time on
the fire brigade.
Likewise, personnel trained as emergency
responders may find themselves with other
operational priorities from their primary job
and unable to respond in an emergency, Pirc
said.
“The emergency may be in their area of the
plant,” he said. “They may have to go out and
close valves on tanks or perform an emergency
shutdown or by-pass procedure.”
To avoid this, Kurtz provides a fixed number
of trained fire fighting personnel who are on
hand no matter what happens to supplement
volunteer or mandatory responders, Pirc said.
“You know what you’ve got seven days a
week, 24 hours a day,” Pirc said. “A lot of
facilities don’t have that. The same holds true
for high angle and confined space rescue, hazmat and emergency medical services
responses.”
With the advantages the Kurtz approach
offers, getting industry interested is not such a
hard sell, Vana said.
“OSHA and NFPA have established so
many regulations that there is no way
volunteers or mandatory responders can
maintain their competencies in all areas of
emergency response and still keep an industrial
facility completely compliant,” he said.
Lower insurance rates are one major selling
point, Vana said. Mustering workers from
various points across the plant and deploying
them as firefighters costs valuable minutes.
Keeping the fire stations staffed with Kurtz
firefighters means an instant response.
“For what it costs to put 15 trained people
into a refinery, it is almost a wash insurancewise,” he said. “Your insurance drops
dramatically when you can demonstrate that
you have firefighters available 24/7, not just an
emergency response organization composed of
employees hopefully coming from their normal
job duties.”
However, these firefighters do not spend
the day just waiting for the fire bell, Pirc said.
“Our people work a 24 hour shift, just like
municipal firefighters,” he said. “Every morning
starts with a safety talk and reviewing what is
going on in the facility that day. Then they
tackle a safety issue, usually related to the daily
facility activites in the field. Half of the workday
in the morning is spent on what we call
mechanical integrity or equipment checks.”
In the afternoon, training is always
emphasized for the Kurtz personnel on duty
shift. At other
times, the Kurtz
personnel will
either conduct or
assist in conducting classes for
refinery employees including
firefighting for
operators, maintenance, fire brigade personnel
or, in some cases,
Photo Courtesy of Kurtz
clerical employKurtz
firefighters
undertake
a
live-fire
training
assignment.
ees. Training depends on roles
and responsib-ilities of the em-ployees. Time The quick self generated actions of the Kurtz
not spent at the fire stations goes toward fire firefighters in the area of the incident did in
prevention in other ways – industrial hygiene, fact save a life that day.
“That man would clearly have died had
fire extinguisher inspections, fire water system
flushing and preventative maintenance, flushing there not been a rescue team or fire brigade at
monitors, maintaining nozzles, air pack that refinery,” Vana said. “That refinery
manager gave awards to our guys because they
inspections and record keeping.
“At one refinery, our staff began to do all prevented a death in the refinery that day.”
The financial cost to the refinery could have
the fit testing,” Vana said. “If it costs $25 or
more to fit test each person, imagine what you been staggering as well.
“Take the increased premiums and other
save if you have 1,000 employees and another
700 to 800 contractors. Hose testing is another numbers into account and our firefighters paid
for themselves for about two or three years in
chore we’ve taken over as well.”
After dinner, firefighters can either utilize that one incident alone,” Vana said.
In addition to emergency response services,
their time in exercise or computer-based
Kurtz Industrial Fire Services can provide intraining, Pirc said.
To date, Kurtz industrial firefighters have house reviews of existing in-place fire
handled three major process unit fires. In one protection facility services including fire, hazmat and rescue.
case, the damage reached $350 million.
The reviews provide a thorough third party
“We held it to the point of origin,” Pirc said.
“The process supervisor told me, ‘Thank God set of eyes to review compliance with NFPA
for the fire crew because if it wasn’t for them, and OSHA codes and standards including
the fire would not have been contained to the training procedures and record keeping, fixed
and mobile equipment maintenance and testing
point of origin.’”
In at least one case, having Kurtz firefighters procedures and documentation, emergency
on site was the difference between life and response plans, policy and organization
death for two contract refinery workers, Vana statements, employee training and compliance
with OSHA 1910.119, section 13, Emergency
said.
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Two contract employees were inadvertently Planning and Response.
trapped by a
catalyst which
had formed a
crust at an
inspection door
on a catal-yst
hopper. The
catalyst gave
way and consumed both employees while
they attempted
to escape on a
large catwalk and
stairway area.
35
Failure to properly care for combustion
equipment can have fatal consequences
15
Minutes
Can Save Your Life
By JOHN R. PUSKAR, PE/CEC Combustion
afety within manufacturing plants is an ongoing issue that
needs more focus and attention from those who are in charge
of maintenance and safety. Combustion equipment can be
a main source of explosions. These types of disasters are
preventable even for someone who does not work with
combustion equipment on a daily basis. What follows is no substitute
for a skilled technician but it can help to save lives if someone is guilty
of even one of the 10 deadly combustion equipment sins that follow.
This screening takes less than 15 minutes. In each case the issue is
spelled out along with the potential hazard.
All of the 10 “deadly sins” illustrated below are real-life examples of
what auditors at Combustion Safety, Inc. have come across when asked
to evaluate the safety of combustion equipment. All of these examples
could make for a dangerous working environment that could result in a
fire or explosion under the right conditions.
1) Tightness testing of safety shut-off valves and blocking valves
is not being carried out.
S
Gas trains keep gas out of the combustion chamber when no
combustion is taking place through a series of tight closing , specially
designed shut-off valves that are spring-loaded to close. These are the
safety shut-off and blocking valves.
Equipment codes and laws require these valves to be tightness tested
on a regular basis. Auditors at Combustion Safety, Inc. find that proper
checkouts and testing are seldom performed on the building code required
schedules. Leaking gas through these valves into a combustion chamber
can enhance the chances of an explosion.
2) Bad things can happen in control panels! Critical safety
components can be mistakenly jumpered out and/or unreliable
wiring or controldocumentation may exist.
C
D
E
F
The photographs show evidence of jumpered out safety components,
poor wiring installations and/or poor documentation practices. (c)
indicates wiring not labeled and not arranged such that it can be
understood without a high probability of error. The wiring diagram
shown in (d) has been customize in the field. This may or may not be
accurate or correct.
Bypassing safety circuits is a big no-no. In the case of (e), an obvious
electrical jumper wire bypasses a control. It is a wire that is not the
same as the others, is connected with alligator clips and is of a different
gauge and color. In (f) a popsicle stick is broken off and jammed into an
air switch contact to hold it open. These are things to look for and find
before trying to start equipment.
3) Obsolete burner management systems can make for long
outages and less protection.
G
A
B
The photographs show evidence of valve testing plugs that do not
appear to have ever been removed. This is an obvious sign that the
required gas train automatic valve tightness testing is probably not
taking place.
36
H
The burner management system in (g) is a new model RM7800 from
Honeywell. An older electro mechanical model R4138 is shown in (h).
Burner Management Systems (BMS) are the most important single
safety component that exists for any piece of gas-fired equipment.
Recent advances have put more features and safety into this equipment.
For example, newer BMS have purge timers that are solid state and not
adjustable. Many explosions have occurred where purge timers have
been turned down in the field, making for ineffective removal of flammable
mixtures before pilot light-off cycles have occurred. Another important
issue is BMS obsolescence. If a BMS system or component fails that is
no longer manufactured, it could take days of rewiring for a newer,
different style to be installed.
4) Valves in the instrument lines can render switches /
instruments ineffective.
M
I
N
J
Valves in instrument lines can be left in the closed position, rendering
switches out of service and functionally incapable of operating. This
could leave personnel and equipment unprotected. Valves should always
be removed or at least locked open as soon as they are found. This
especially applies to (i) high / low gas pressure sensing lines, steam
pressure switches and water column connections.
5) Set points that are obviously wrong can render switches /
instruments ineffective.
Instruments and / or safety devices without correct set points provide
O
leaked. These valves are usually spring-loaded to close (not needing the
hydraulic fluid for closing). The risk here is mostly one of equipment
downtime when least expected since the hydraulic fluid is needed to
open the valve to light the unit.
8) Lubricated plug valves can be leaking in the closed position
or be frozen in place and inoperable.
P
Q
K
little or no protection. Gas pressure switches are shown that have set
points pulled all the way to one side or the other. These are most likely
not set correctly. Improper gas pressures could cause flameouts and
explosions.
6) Flame roll-out (hard starting) can be a warning for dangerous
conditions that may get worse.
L
When the bottom of equipment is burned or scorched, it may indicate
flame rollout. This can occur when flues are partially blocked and / or
fuel and air mixtures are set incorrectly. In these cases combustible
mixtures and flames can exist outside of the firebox.
One of the risks is catching things on fire that are near the base of this
equipment. Another is that as things continue to degrade, the flame
rollout condition could turn into a catastrophic explosion from the
accumulation of unburned gasses that ignite at once.
7) Automatic valve actuator failures (safety shut-off valve,
blocking valve, pilot or vents) can make for hazardous operating
conditions and down time.
Hydraulic valve actuator failures are sometimes indicated by the
presence of hydraulic fluid on the valve’s exterior. These photographs
show oil stains on the sides of valves (m), puddling at the valve (n) and
obvious excessive leakage (puddling under the equipment) (o). This
condition it indicates that some of the actuator’s hydraulic fluid has
R
S
T
U
Lubricated plug valves fail a number of ways, including leaking when
in the closed position and being stuck in the open or closed position.
Inspections at more than 200 sites found that more than 60 percent
leaked in the closed position. A typical plug valve showing the body,
plug and lubricant coating on the plug that makes the seal is shown in
(p). A frozen valve that cannot be closed in an emergency is indicated in
(q). Exterior stem corrosion is shown in (r). A valve that has been
painted shut is shown in (t). A valve in the closed position that is
leaking through the inside of the pipe downstream is indicated in (u).
Lubricated plug valves need to be properly maintained on a regular
basis. This means installing the proper sealant material and making sure
the valves are exercised.
9) Vent valves can be failed open, disrupting burner operating
conditions that put live fuel on roofs and sending improper mixtures
into burners.
Normally open vent valves are installed in gas trains to improve
safety when equipment is off (v). They allow gas leakage through the
first automatic valve to get outside instead of to the firebox. When the
burner tries to light, they are supposed to close tight so all the gas goes
to the burner. If they are failed and leaking, they can vent natural gas
from the gas train while the burner tries to operate (w). This makes for
risks from ignition sources on the roof. It also makes for burners with
unstable flames that cannot stay lit. If this happens, back-up systems
37
Boilers
V
W
must recognize the loss of flame and be called upon to shut off the gas.
If these fail, an explosion is likely.
10) Outside vent terminations can be blocked with insect nests.
Most instruments and switches are vented with pipes outside to
safe locations (x) to allow for proper operation and for gas to escape if
a diaphragm failure occurs. Vent terminations are often found to be
blocked with insect nests (y). A clogged vent can mean that there is no
protection from leaking safety shut-off valves / blocking valves or for
relieving failed components. Safety codes require protected vent
terminations (z) be installed with screening devices.
Gas And Combustion System Explosions Can Be Avoided
For companies that are combustion system sinners, salvation can
often be found in the form of awareness and training. It is also most
likely going to take a culture change at the facility and a new found
respect for combustion equipment. Consider the case of a 100-gallon
water heater. The energy stored in a 100-gallon water heater can be
equivalent to 10 sticks of dynamite. If a company has10 sticks of
dynamite stored at its facility, it would treat the dynamite with respect.
Combustion equipment is not like fall protection or employees wearing
safety glasses. This equipment has the power to destroy people and
property on a massive scale. It only gives one chance. That chance can
mean death and destruction for those that may be working on or near
the equipment, as well as many innocent bystanders. Companies must
find 15 minutes to review their sites!
C
For more information, please visit www.combustionsafety.com
or contact Combustion Safety at 1-888-826-3473.
X
38
Y
Z
2009 IFW Emergency Responders
Conference & Exposition
March 23-27 • Beaumont, TX
Photo by Lynn White
Firefighters tackle one of 25 fire training ‘props’ available at the University of Nevada, Reno Fire Science Academy.
State budget crisis may force closure of Nevada fire academy
Decision Pending
decision on closing the University of Nevada, Reno Fire
Science Academy (UNR) near Elko, NV, in response to a
state budget crisis has been postponed by university
regents until October to allow more time to pursue possible
funding partnerships with industry.
The regents’ action comes in the wake of a report by an advisory
council chaired by former Nevada governor Kenny Guinn and prominent
business people recommending closure of the facility.
According to The Elko Daily Free Press, regents are unanimous in
their decision to continue discussion about the closure, but disagree on
whether they should allow until October or December for progress to
be shown.
UNR president Milt Glick recommends the regents to continue the
discussion to allow more time for the partnerships to be explored.
University representatives are talking to oil companies and mining
companies who are customers of the academy.
The university is also in discussion with an oil company trade
association representing more potential students.
The Guinn report notes that the fire academy has a long-term capital
debt of $27.1 million, which is being paid off through student fees. The
academy also faces operating and construction repair deficits totaling
$12 million. Costs of closing the school after this season could run
another $3.5 million.
According to the Associated Press, the report says the academy is
well run and recognized internationally for its fire fighting training, but
it has a business plan that was “fatally flawed from the outset with
A
unrealistic cost, enrollment and revenue projections.”
“While we wish our recommendation to close the FSA could be
otherwise, we believe it to be in the best long-term interests of the
university, the Nevada System of Higher Education, present and future
students and the taxpayers of Nevada,” the report states.
For the 2009-11 biennium, state agencies face a mandated budget cut
of 14 percent to make up for a projected state shortfall approaching $1
billion. The university gets 60 percent of its funding from the state’s
general fund.
Located in the Ruby Mountain region of northern Nevada, the UNR
Fire Science Academy is home to 25 full-sized live burn props, together
with a staff residence, administration building, cafeteria and recreation
building, classrooms and observation tower. The isolated location
permits year-round live burns, as opposed to the annual eight-month
schedule allowed at the academy’s previous home in Stead near Reno.
The 426-acre academy near Elko opened in March 1999. Eighteen
months later, amidst much red ink and unexpected environmental impact,
FSA ceased live-burn training operations. By November 2000, it closed
its doors at the new site completely.
After untangling a myriad of legal problems, the school reopened in
2002. That year, FSA trained more than 1,800 firefighters. Enrollment
has steadily increased since then to more than 4,000 students in 2007.
Denise Baclawski, FSA executive director, said the school continues
to train firefighters at that enrollment level.
“We are committed to providing the same quality services the clients
have come to expect,” she said.
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39
RISK ASSESSMENT
Pre-planning then and now
I
By JOHN FRANK/XL GAPS
recently had an opportunity to vacation on the Florida island where
I served as a volunteer firefighter in the combination (part paid, part
volunteer) department from 1982-1985. I was lucky enough to serve
under company officers who believed in pre-planning and that helped
spark the interest in this column – where pre-planning is a central focus.
Now, 23 years after I left and armed with my experience as a fire
protection engineer, I had a chance to reflect on pre-planning then and
what more could have been done with more systems knowledge. The
analogies apply to planning for all types of firefighting but more so to
industrial operations.
Interestingly enough, the day I left for the vacation, I read a news
story in one of the online fire magazines that continues to drive home
the need for industrial pre-planning. It seems that a medium-sized
municipal fire department was faced with a fire in a baled paper
warehouse. As was to be expected, the tightly packed bales of paper
posed a challenge. One of the chief officers stated that due to the
difficulty of the fire, they had to come up with a plan on how to deal
with the bales. The entire focus of this series is that a planning session
should have been done well before the fire, not in the middle of it. The
site was there, presumably for years, and unlike a highway hazmat
incident, you can know what you can expect before you ever get the
call.
Back to the island condominium. Some of the things that we did preplan were:
1) How to deal with the fact that the aerial ladder could not access
the beach side of the structure. We had 55-foot ground ladders and we
were probably one of the last fire departments to carry and actually
intend to use scaling ladders so we could go floor-to-floor as needed. We
also carried short escape ropes — just long enough to go the floor below
if we got trapped on the beach side. We could also rappel down the
beach side from the roof. One positive was that building codes limited
construction to 75 feet high so the aerial could at least get to the roof
from the front. At the time, there were two mutual aid ladder companies
as well.
This leads to another point with aerial operations. The outrigger
spread on newer aerials is much wider than in the past. This is safer, but
it takes more space to set them up. Looking at parking lot congestion, a
longer aerial will probably be needed to get to those same roofs.
Think about high rise industrial occupancies with similar congestion
and limited access. What is your plan? Can the newer, longer, safer
aerials even negotiate some of the turns or clear pipe racks?
2) We were well versed in the construction features of the building.
We used to walk through the condominiums, which were just being built
at the time, every shift. We compared what we found to what Frank
Brannigan had to say in Building Construction for the Fire Service and
planned accordingly. Brannigan also covered industrial occupancies,
especially warehouses, tilt-up concrete construction and combustible
metal deck roofs. Anyone who fights structural fires should study his
book. Brannigan does not cover process structures specifically, but he
had a lot to say about steel construction that can be applied.
3) Of course, we know where to find the utility cutoffs, the fire
alarm panel, the fire department connection, hydrants, flow available at
20 psi, pool chemicals and the like.
4) We even found that a few unscrupulous contractors were just
40
sticking sprinkler heads up with no pipe. This was before a full time fire
marshal position was created, and had it not been for our daily
construction walk throughs, we may have never found this situation.
Now for what I know to look for now that I did not know then:
1) I do not remember ever talking about the operation of the building
fire pump. We knew the building had one and that was about it. The
recent series of articles by Jeff Roberts describes in detail how to ensure
that a building pump will reliably operate during the fire and how to
keep it running in an emergency.
In the case of the condominium, adequate flow and pressure could be
delivered by our 1,000 gpm pumper through the fire department
connection. But what about a petrochemical plant with a demand of
20,000 gpm at 125 psi; or even a warehouse with a sprinkler demand of
2,000 gpm at 135 psi and a 4-inch fire department connection? The
facility pump(s) had better work in those cases.
2) Even though we focused on construction, I think we missed the
potential combustion hazards of Exterior Insulation Finishing Systems
(EIFS) that were being installed everywhere. It looks like most
condominiums on the island uses EIFS. This is often a combustible
exterior finish that most industrial property insurance companies and
property loss prevention companies recommend to pass a large scale
fire test such as FM Approvals Corner Test or the test described by
NFPA 285 Standard Fire Test Method for Evaluation of Fire Propagation
Characteristics of Exterior Non-Load-Bearing Wall Assemblies
Containing Combustible Components. Systems that have not passed
such a test could present responders with an unexpectedly severe exterior
fire.
A recent hotel and casino fire in Las Vegas reportedly involved an
EIFS, although some blogs speculate that it may have been something
else. Although major industrial insurance companies look for this, I
rarely — if ever — hear the fire service discussing its hazards.
EIFS is not as common on industrial facilities as in commercial
construction; however, in areas where industrial buildings are trying to
blend into the community, it is more common because it looks nice.
Unfortunately for the responder, it looks like trowel-finished masonry
construction (which is the intent) so it is hard to notice.
3) Although we were well aware of our hydrant flow at 20 psi, we
really needed is to know the flow at the sprinkler system demand
pressure. If the sprinkler system has a demand of 300 gpm at 125 psi,
we need to know if that demand can be met with and without the pump
and while supplying hose streams. In dealing with fire protection system
hydraulics, both the flow and pressure must be known. Having class
AA hydrants (1,500 gpm at 20 psi) is meaningless for system analysis.
Saying we have “good” pressure (whatever “good” means) is also
meaningless since the flow is not stated.
What is needed is a statement like “the water spray system needs
3,000 gpm at 125 psi and we need an additional 2,000 gpm at 125 psi
for monitors for a total of 5000 gpm @ 125 psi. Then, through flowtesting, if you know you can supply 6,000 gpm at 150 psi even with
the largest pump out of service. Then you know something. You can
satisfy system volume and pressure requirements and you have enough
reserve to operate two more 500 gpm monitors if needed to.
4) I don’t recall discussing wind driven flames. The wind blows in
FOCUS ON HAZMAT
Did we really mean to do that?
U
ntil the dawn of the twentieth century, Americans and most of
the rest of the world for that matter, were pretty much on their
own so far as insuring the quality of the food they ate, the
medicines they took for their illnesses or the safety of their workplace
environments. America was an agrarian society made up of small isolated
communities in which everyone knew everyone else and one knew who
milked his cow, churned his butter, baked his bread and prepared his
medicines; and, he knew how it was done and what went into the final
product. He knew that he needed to keep his hand out of the feed mill
and also what would happen to him if he did not. Any untoward
happening was considered to be his own fault; it was too bad but he
should have known better or been more attentive to what he was doing.
As the urban population grew as a result of the great migration from
Europe, this idyllic picture of American society changed radically. Foods,
drugs and other essential commodities became products, created in
inanimate factories by anonymous employees of aggressive and
sometimes insensitive entrepreneurs and, as always, there were those
who would place profits before quality. In 1906, Upton Sinclair
published his muckraking novel The Jungle, which dealt with conditions
in the U.S. meat packing industry. The public uproar that followed is
credited, at least in part, with the passage of the Pure Food and Drug
Act and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906. Thus began the first sustained
effort on the part of the government to insure the health and safety of
its citizens through regulations and their enforcement.
The trend has continued until the present day, expanding
exponentially with the creation of the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC), the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA),
the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the Department
of Transportation (DOT), The Federal Aeronautics Administration
(FAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) among others,
all of which promulgate rules and regulations and have a bearing on
legislation passed by Congress.
As a result, the American public has become used, or almost addicted
to the idea that the way to protect against any risk or hazard is to
legislate against it, or, at least, regulate it, and this is the duty or
responsibility of government. John Q. Public wants to be guaranteed a
risk free environment; but I’ve got news for John Q “it ain’t gonna
happen.”
To be sure, most of the protective laws and agencies, especially the
earlier ones, were created for laudable reasons to satisfy a real need to
protect health or safety of the citizenry or the environment. Certainly
no one should be allowed to use formaldehyde to preserve fresh milk or
sell cosmetics containing salts of lead, mercury bismuth or other heavy
metals.
Other laws have been enacted for the sake of political expediency.
After all, what politician wants to be seen as opposed to preserving the
environment or providing a safe work environment? Some laws were
created in response to the pressure generated by public concern and in
some cases actual fears, which were sometimes exacerbated by the
media. Whether these concerns or fears are valid does not really matter;
they exist, and they can cause a lot of political heat to be generated.
Legislation, and indeed most human endeavor, is subject to the “law
of unintended consequences.” In an article appearing in The Concise
Encyclopedia of Economics, Rob Norton states, “The Law of Unintended
By DR. JOHN S. TOWNSEND
Consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people—
and especially of government—always have effects that are unanticipated
or unintended. Economists and other social scientists have heeded its
power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion
have largely ignored it.”
In many cases, these “unintended consequences” have actually
negated the original purpose of the regulation. Thus we have the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was intended to increase
opportunities for those with disabilities, but, because it increased the
cost of hiring employees with disabilities, it has actually decreased their
opportunities for employment.
Fire prevention measures within forested areas have actually increased
the danger of fire and the damage caused by it through the accumulation
of debris. The corn-based ethanol program has increased the demand for
corn and resulted in a large increase in food prices, not only in the
United States but around the world. The environmental movements has
delayed, if not actually prevented, the construction of newer, more
efficient oil refining facilities, and this has contributed, at least in part,
to the current high price of motor fuel.
In the Desert Southwest, water is a precious commodity. When we
find it, we clean it up and use it. When the EPA mandated that all runoff
water had to be confined to the site where it originated, the result was
the construction of containment ponds to hold this runoff water. The
idea seems to have been that any contained water would percolate into
the soil (and in the process possibly contaminate the underground
aquifers) instead of flowing to the river where it could be caught in
reservoirs downstream for later use. The lawmakers failed to reckon
with our “adobe” clay soils. These soils hold water like a jug. This is
also true of the red clay in Georgia and the “red bed” of west Texas
among many others.
To comply with the EPA directive, property owners have constructed
holding ponds on the grounds of their buildings to contain the runoff
water and keep it on site. As a result, there are numerous, nicely
landscaped ponds all over the community. These are usually filled with
large rocks to prevent people or animals from falling in and drowning.
These ponds have no outlet and once filled simply sit until the water is
removed by pumping or evaporated by the sun. The water stagnates,
becomes a source of odor, and, worse, provides, an ideal breeding place
for mosquitoes, some of which can, and on occasion do, carry West Nile
Virus (WNV). Rains produced by the remnants of Hurricane Dolly
have prompted local government to initiate a frantic effort to get all of
these ponds sprayed before the WNV-carrying mosquitoes can
reproduce. Of course, spraying introduces more pesticide into the
environment.
The basic tenants of the promulgations of EPA and OSHA are good
and well intentioned, but the “unintended consequences” that have
accompanied these regulations have at times created more hazards than
they have eliminated.
Another “unintended consequence” of legislation has been the creation
of a climate of fear in the mind of the public. As a result, we have seen
proposed legislation based on what might happen rather than credible
evidence of an existing hazard. No matter how badly society wants it, a
risk-free world simply does not and will not exist. Every action carries
with it a certain amount of risk. When one steps out to cross the street
41
there is a risk present, even though the light is with the pedestrian. Does
the pedestrian want to get to the other side of the street badly enough to
justify the inherent risk?
The search of a risk-free society has been a windfall to the personal
injury lawyers. Almost nightly we see television advertisements asking,
“Have you been hurt by so and so or think you might have been? If so,
call this number you may be entitled to compensation.” Another
television ad actually starts off with the words if you or a loved one has
died……” It would be interesting to know just how many inquiries this
lawyer has gotten from people who have died. There is risk involved in
the use of virtually any medicine, but look at the alternatives; would
anyone in his right mind want to have his appendix removed sans
anesthetic because of the risk? Would a patient with 98 percent heart
blockage forego bypass surgery because the drug Trasylol carries a risk
of kidney problems? I think not. The means (relief of surgical pain or
bleeding) would justify the risks involved; and besides, you can always
sue your doctor later, at least according to some of the personal injury
lawyers.
Risks are not restricted to medical issues and as a result we have
Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) that warn us of the hazard of
dropping a steel plate on toes or being hit on the head with it. The coffee
cup that one gets at the fast food restaurant now carries the warning
that coffee is hot (one would think that the sense of touch would tell
him that), as if anyone would want his morning coffee at room
temperature.
Mercury (atomic number 80, atomic weight 200.59) is one of the
transition (“B” family) elements. Its oxidation states are +2 and +1.
Due to its low melting point (-38.58ºC), mercury exists as a liquid at
room temperature. It is the only metal with this property but gallium
(atomic number 31) is closest with a melting point of 29.76 ºCelsius.
Mercury is considered toxic but in reality its toxicity when in the
elemental (metallic) state is not nearly as great as it is when combined or
when it is encountered in the vapor state. In fact, “elemental mercury is
usually quite harmless if touched or swallowed. It is so thick and slippery
that it usually falls off your skin or out of your stomach without being
absorbed.”1 This accounts for its successful use as a weight when
introducing some of the early stomach tubes for gastric analysis.
In order to be toxic, a substance must be absorbed into the tissues,
and for this reason compounds of mercury which are soluble are far
more toxic than the pure metal which is virtually insoluble. Thus the
government has banned many mercury-containing medicinals such as
red mercurochrome and merthiolate.
While it has not yet been banned, thiomerosal, a common preservative
for vaccines and used since the 1930’s, has been under scrutiny as a
cause of autism and other brain development disorders found in young
children. So far mainstream medical opinion is that no convincing
scientific evidence supports these claims but the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) under
the precautionary principle, which is an assumption that there is no
harm in exercising caution even if it later turns out to be unwarranted,
have asked vaccine manufacturers to remove thiomerosal from vaccines
as quickly as possible. The compound has been rapidly phased out of
most U.S. and European vaccines.
Mercury vapors are also toxic and the inhalation of these vapors
emanating from spilled mercury can have serious consequences. This is
the rationale for the current efforts to reduce the amount of metallic
mercury in the environment. Mercury that has been absorbed into the
body tends to remain in the body.
While the average citizen is not aware of it, there is a great deal of
elemental mercury in the ordinary environment. It is present in
42
thermostats, electrical switches and dental fillings. It is also used to fill
various gauging instruments (thermometers and barometers) and
manometers (the doctor’s sphygmomanometer for example).
Mercury is also a component of batteries and, with the proliferation
of small efficient electronic devices such as in-ear hearing aids, cell
phones, pocket radios and digital cameras, the number of these being
used and later discarded into the environment is growing exponentially,
becoming a matter of concern to environmentalists.
Because metallic mercury was formerly used in various oil field gauging
instruments, the petroleum industry has now been required to spend
great sums of money to clean up the sites of numerous pipeline gauging
stations and refineries.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large amounts of
mercury were used as a component of the amalgam process to extract
precious metals from their ores. In this process, up to 300 pounds of
mercury are combined with a ton of metallic ore, thus an amalgamation
of the mercury and other metallic minerals is formed. This method, for
example, extracted some 50-85 percent of the precious metals from the
Comstock Lode ores it was used to treat. In the process, however, one
to three pounds of metallic mercury were usually lost to the environment
in a typical operation. In the case of the Comstock Lode, several million
pounds (up to 14 million pounds by some estimates) of elemental
mercury now exists in the Carson River down stream from the mills.
This mercury will eventually be converted to soluble compounds and
slowly find its way into the food chain as methylmercury or other
compounds which can be assimilated by the human body.
While the amalgam process has been superseded by the cyanide
process in the United States, mercury is still used in many Third World
countries to treat precious metal ores and continues to be a source of
environmental contamination. Cyanide on the other hand will rapidly
degrade into carbon and nitrogen in sunlight or in contact with the
atmosphere. Cyanide can also be rapidly neutralized by hydrogen
peroxide and other chemicals. Even though cyanide is highly poisonous,
the fact that it will deteriorate in the environment makes it more desirable
than the amalgam process.
Another source of mercury is the exhaust from coal burning power
plants. Now there is, of course, nothing unique about power plants.
Any coal fired factory will emit mercury, but the generation of power
accounts for the largest amount of coal consumption in the U.S.
In recent years, the rising cost of energy has caused the general
population to focus on efficiency in the home and in the work place.
One of the biggest, if not the biggest, energy wasters is the incandescent
light bulb. This device has been around for almost a hundred years and
it was truly one of the great inventions of the twentieth century; but it
is very inefficient with 95 percent of the energy consumed being given
off as heat rather than as light. This is not a bad thing when you are
brooding baby chicks with a couple of 150 watt light bulbs but it does
become a problem when these same lights raise the temperature of an
already stifling living room in the summer.
The problem becomes more acute with the advent of air conditioning.
Now we find ourselves paying to create the heat as a by product of light
and then paying again to pump it out of the house. The same thing, by
the way, applies to the domestic refrigerator. The heat extracted from
the food compartment is discharged into the room through the condenser,
thus increasing the load on the air conditioning system and causing us to
spend more money to remove it.
In 1992 the EPA initiated the Energy Star program to promote
efficiency. Part of this program encourages the phase out of tungsten
lamps in favor of more efficient types. In reality this means Compact
Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs). These lamps are 75 percent more efficient
than conventional tungsten lamps. For instance, a standard 150 watt locations and sometimes in public buildings. This usually takes shape
tungsten lamp will consume, you guessed it, 150 watts of energy and in the form of a flexible clear plastic tube fitted with sealing end caps
produce 2,600 lumens, the equivalent CFL emitting the same light (2,600 that slips over the lamp at the time of installation and contains the
lumens) will consume on the average 41 watts of power to produce the fragments and the metallic mercury in the event of breakage. We have
same 2,600 lumens; a saving of about 75 percent. The energy saved found no indication of this requirement for fluorescent tubes installed in
translates into less required generation of power and less carbon private homes. Neither is there any record of any secondary containment
requirement for CFLs.
emissions, or a smaller “carbon footprint.”
To be sure, each vapor discharge lamp contains only a small amount
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (the “Energy
of elemental mercury (four to five mg) but
Bill”), signed by the President on December
look at a modern city, operating refinery or
18, 2007 requires all light bulbs use 30
other similar industrial installation at night
percent less energy than today’s
to get an idea of the number of mercuryincandescent bulbs by 2012 to 2014. The
containing lamps in operation. In aggregate,
phase-out will start with 100-watt bulbs in
this represents a significant quantity of
January 2012 and end with 40-watt bulbs
mercury and this amount will increase as
in January 2014. By 2020, a Tier 2 would
CFLs become more common.
become effective, which requires all bulbs
One retailer has announced a sales goal
to be at least 70 percent more efficient
of one million CFLs for 2008. This goal is
(effectively equal to today’s CFLs). While
llikely to be met and possibly even exceeded.
this legislation does not specifically mandate
The main reason is that conversion of an
the use of compact fluorescent lamps, they
existing light fixture to use CFLs is usually
are about the only viable alternative to the
easy. Unlike the traditional fluorescent
tungsten lamp currently available. On the
tubes or other vapor discharge lamps, CFLs
surface, this legislation has a laudable
do not require a special fixture containing a
purpose, but that “Law of Unintended
ballast transformer and/or a starter. All of
Consequences” does come into play.
these components are contained in the base
All of the high efficiency lamps now
of the lamp. All that is necessary for
available contain mercury. This is true
conversion is to unscrew the old tungsten
whether they are the mercury vapor lamps
Any policy decision has multiple imbulb, screw in the new CFL and turn on the
or the high pressure sodium vapor lamps
pacts/consequences, positive and negaswitch; nothing else is required. It is also
that light streets, factories and plant areas
tive, as well as intended and unintended.
true that as CFLs are discarded, more
or the common fluorescent tubes that light
We can reduce the negative by thinking
valuable materials, mainly metals, are lost
supermarkets, offices and classrooms. All
them through and anticipating costs vs.
and may revert to the environment unless a
contain some mercury. Each CFL or
benefits before finalizing policy.
vigorous effort is initiated and pursued.
fluorescent tube contains about four or five
The current OSHA standard for mercury
mg of the metal. The exception is the low
in air is 0.1mg/m3; therefore the 5 mg in an
pressure sodium (LPS/SOX) lamps which
usually do not contain mercury but these are not suitable for general average CFL could contaminate 50 cubic meters of atmosphere. An
illumination where the ability to distinguish colors is essential. This average ten by twelve foot room with an eight foot ceiling contains
mercury is a source of environmental contamination in the event of 27.19 m3, thus a spill of the mercury contained in one CFL could
significantly contaminate two rooms. Parameters like whether or not
breakage or when the lamp is discarded at the end of its useful life.
Presently most mercury-containing lamps (particularly those types the lamp was operating at the time or if the mercury contained in it
containing the most mercury) are contained in fixtures that are would be warm and therefore more likely to be released in the vapor
inaccessible to the general public such as signs, street lights, large state as opposed to the emanation from a cold, or non operating, lamp
manufacturing facilities and athletic fields, gymnasiums or auditoriums. which might release some metallic mercury which is less dangerous. A
Lamps in such installations are normally fairly well protected from catastrophic event such as a fire, explosion or violent weather, impacting
breakage by their housings and their inaccessible locations and are usually a large industrial installation or city could cause the breakage of a
maintained by professionals who see to it that the replaced lamps were significant number of mercury-containing lamps and concurrently the
disposed of in a safe manner. There are relatively few vapor discharge release of a dangerously large amount of mercury.
Firefighters responding to an incident in even a moderate sized
lamps in the average home, and those that are present are the familiar
fluorescent tubes. These are usually located in mounted fixtures and are mercantile or industrial establishment should bear in mind the large
number of mercury containing lamps in these locations and always use
out of reach of children or pets.
With the advent of the CFL this is changing. CFLs are now found in appropriate respiratory protection. This admonition should also be
desk lamps, in mechanic’s drop lights and in other portable lighting heeded by clean up crews removing debris after the initial event.
Government guidelines for handling a broken CFL or regular
applications throughout the home, office, plant or factory where they
have simply been installed in existing fixtures to replace the heat fluorescent lamps include:
• Evacuation of the room and preclusion of the use of a vacuum
generating and power hungry tungsten lamps previously utilized. CFLs
in these applications are far more susceptible to breakage than are those cleaner, which would spread the contamination.
• Ventilation of the area for 15 minutes before attempting clean up
housed in inaccessible mounted fixtures. Because of this possibility of
accidental breakage, many jurisdictions now require secondary and the continuation of ventilation for several hours afterward. This
containment of the traditional fluorescent tubes when used in hazardous may lower the concentration of mercury in the room but it will spread
43
HazMat
Continued from page43
it over a larger area. Air conditioning may well circulate the contamination
throughout the entire system.
• Pat the area of the spill with the sticky side of duct tape, packing
tape or masking tape to pick up fine particles. Wipe the area with a wet
wipe or damp paper towel to pick up even finer particles. This is good
practice so far as picking up shards and small particles of glass, but just
how much mercury will be picked up is questionable since the metal
does not readily adhere to such surfaces.
• Devices for picking up spilled mercury in the laboratory have been
around for years. These devices take advantage of the fact mercury will
adhere to a clean copper surface. They usually take form in the shape of
a scoop and some sort of sweeper, often a series of copper washers,
mounted on an axle, which will pick up the spilled mercury. These
fairly inexpensive devices are much more effective than masking tape. A
small wad of copper wool (sometimes sold under the name of “Chore
Girl”) used for scrubbing pots in the kitchen can also be found to
effectively retrieve spilled mercury.
• Governmental guidelines also suggest that removal of carpeting
may be necessary since cleaning this material is extremely difficult at
best and often is a practical impossibility.
Practical questions such as central air conditioning and the ability to
adequately ventilate interior rooms should be considered. In short, how
many building occupants will actually go to the trouble of following all
these guidelines? Commercial establishments subject to OSHA
regulations may be required to do so but will the average homeowner or
tenant follow suit?
Now this is not to make light of the recommendations for handling
breakages involving mercury-containing lamps. In fact, a cleanup carried
out following these guidelines would very likely protect persons working
or living in the vicinity from another hazard, namely the phosphors
used to coat the inside of the lamps. Some of these are thought to be
toxic or carcinogenic.
So, in an effort to conserve energy, bring operational costs down and
reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, we have, due
to the inexorable operation of the “law of unintended consequences,”
Risk
Continued from page 40
from the beach side but the only platform for attack was the street side.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently
done research in this area for high rise structure fires. Wind also has to
be considered at industrial locations when planning attack points. An
excellent example is the tank pre-plan published in Hildebrand and
Noll’s text Storage Tank Emergencies. Pads for monitor nozzle trailers
were set up for prevailing wind conditions and an alternate attack point
was also pre-planned.
This article will continue with a Part 2 in the next issue. Feel free to
contact this author at [email protected] or at +1 404-431 2673.C
John Frank, P.E., CFPS is with XL GAPS, a leading loss prevention services
provider and part of the XL group of companies. Through its operating subsidiaries,
XL Capital Ltd (NYSE: XL) is a leading provider of global insurance and reinsurance
coverages to industrial, commercial and professional service firms, insurance
companies, and other enterprises on a worldwide basis. As of September 30, 2007,
XL Capital Ltd had consolidated assets of approximately $60.9 billion and
consolidated shareholders’ equity of approximately $11.4 billion. More information
about XL Capital Ltd is available at www.xlcapital.com
44
induced another potential hazard, increased mercury content, into the
homes and workplaces of America. Is the risk justified by the benefits?
Is the energy saving and the concomitant reduction of the carbon footprint
worth the increased risk of mercury contamination? Have we really
achieved the projected benefits or have we merely moved the source of
contamination from the smokestack to the light socket? Do we need to
re-evaluate the risks from mercury exposure and take into consideration
the toxic properties of compounds of mercury as opposed to those of
the metallic element?
Should we, perhaps, defer the phase-out of the tungsten lamp to
await the advent of non-mercury sources of illumination such as the
light emitting diode (LED), which will very likely reach a state of
practical viability for use in general illumination in the fairly near future?
If so, should we not place greater emphasis on the development of this
technology?
Once introduced into the environment, and worse into the body,
mercury is tenacious and remains for years, even centuries. The mercury
contamination caused by the use of the amalgam process at the site of
the Comstock Lode in Nevada during the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries is proof enough of that. The metal per se may do little or no
harm, but as it is gradually incorporated into the environment, it is
absorbed by living organisms, such as fish and other marine life, and
converted into methylmercury (any of the compounds containing the
CH3Hg complex) and other toxic compounds or vapors. There is already
a lot of mercury out there to convert. In light of the problems associated
with inadvertent mercury exposure from compounds like thiomerosal,
do we want to add more?
As mercury-containing lamps reach the end of their useful lives,
they must be disposed of. Will their disposal in community landfills
create a new source of mercury contamination near each center of
population or will recycling be made “consumer friendly” and
economically feasible enough that people will actually use it? These
questions and others should give us pause to re-think our initial question
with regard to increasing the number of mercury-containing lamps. Did
we really mean to do that?
C
1
See: National Library of Medicine, Medline Plus entry
“mercury” (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/
002476.htm).
CSB Probes Fatal Mill Explosion
T
he U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) announced in August
that it will conduct a full investigation of the storage tank
explosion that killed three workers and injured a fourth at a
corrugated cardboard mill in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, on July 29.
The accident occurred as workers were performing welding to
repair a flange fitting on top of an 80-foot-tall storage tank, which
contained recycled water and paper fiber. The three workers
were standing on a catwalk above the domed, cylindrical tank
performing welding when an internal explosion ripped open the
tank lid. All three workers died of traumatic injuries, including
two who were found on the ground beneath the tank. A fourth,
who had been observing the work from a further distance, survived
with minor injuries.
Among the issues the probe will examine is whether anaerobic
microbes, which grow in the absence of oxygen and feed on organic
matter, produced flammable gas to fuel the explosion.
C
EMS CORNER
Musings from the Chalkboard
By WILLIAM R. KERNEY/College of Southern Nevada
I
f you have been paying attention at all, you are aware of major
changes that are coming down the pipeline regarding EMS. These
changes are significant and puzzling in the same breath and can
severely impact many of you. While these may not even be fully
released until 2010 (and of course, textbooks gearing up for shortly
after that!) with an implementation date for some obscure date post
release, we will need to BR ready and able to make these changes when
they come about. Notice, I did not say willing. There is already
squawking going on about the new standards and these have been out
for review in first and second drafts for some time now. While the noise
has been somewhat loud regarding the changes, the curriculum comes
from a broad and versatile group of individuals representing many big
players in the EMS game, such as the International Association of Fire
Chiefs (IAFC), International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and
National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), not to mention the National
Association of EMS Educators (NAEMSE). After all of the reviewing
is completed, they seek to submit the new package to the National
Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) sometime this
Fall.
Some of the changes will involve some standardization of the
classifications that seemed to have plagued EMS from the beginning.
Many will remember EMT Cardiac Rescue Technician (okay, maybe
only the REAL old timers for that one), EMT-IV, EMT-D and so on
and so forth. Then we went to First Responder, EMT-Basic, EMTIntermediate (and for this you used either a 1992 or 1999 curriculum for
scope of practice) and of course EMTP. Now they want to go with a
simple 4 category standard with some austere name changes. First
Responder will become Emergency Medical Responder (EMR), EMTBasic will go back to Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and EMTIntermediate will become Advanced Emergency Medical Technician
(AEMT). Paramedic will remain Paramedic (EMTP).
Seems simple enough, right? Well for the name changes, I agree, but
the real issue will come in with the hours necessary to acquire these
certifications. The words “certification” and “license” seem to be used
interchangeably in some of the literature, but realize there is a distinct
difference where Project Medical Directors (PMD) “hold” certifications
(and allow you to practice under their license) and where a license is
held by a regulatory agency and can be interpreted to be “free-standing.”
It seems that the real drift appears that these are still meant to be
certifications held by the PMDs although some areas are granting
licensure at the paramedic level. How that whole process plays with
the PMDs and how they are overseeing and “regulating” licensed
individuals is still out, but it has been successful in some areas. In
reality, I do not think it makes a whole lot of difference or will matter if
someone needs a license or certification “pulled.” That can happen in
the blink of an eye.
Contact hours for the various levels are also increasing. EMR is
increasing to 48 total hours. EMT is going to 166 to 180 clock hours.
AEMT will now require 140to166 hours and may require an internship
at the conclusion of the didactic and clinical training. Paramedic training
will come in somewhere at the 1,300 hour mark, but here is the corker
on the whole gig! It is going to be competency-based training and the
hours are “recommended,” and are not carved in stone.
Now I’m all for the concept of competency-based education (we
really have been doing it for years and, after all, we do want them
competent, don’t we?) but this creates a real flux when it comes time to
“set the standards” if you will. For instance, if the new standard
recommends the airway component to be set at eight hours (and these
hours are purely hypothetical and for example only) and one program
teaches it in eight hours, but another completes it in four and states it
has achieved competency (and might have other variables such as
instructor/student ratio), who is to say one is better than the other or
one is more competent than the other? If it is competency based, then all
you can judge it on is whether or not the student is competent in the
areas necessary.
Okay, so what is the problem with this you ask? If we achieve a
competent provider, where have we made a mistake? The only way that
we have to evaluate the students (or employees if you are a training
director given the task of training your staff) is through examinations,
both written and practical. Written exams will test the depth and breadth
of the knowledge base, and the skills exams test, the psychomotor
component or the hands-on skills we work so hard to teach in a lab
setting.
How do we keep instructors from “teaching to the test?” If I ‘teach
to the test’ will this really give me a measure of any sort of competency
in the skill areas? If I “teach to the test,” will I truly be able to measure
any sort of real depth and breadth of the knowledge base with the core
material? Will my student have any real penetration of the knowledge if
my only concern is that he passes the exam?
This has never created good, sound thinking providers and that is
what we truly want. All we seem to hear is we need them fast, we need
them now; you are not doing it fast enough. The hell with quality
(although they don’t come right out and say that…), give us quantity!
All we care about is that you can crank ‘em out! More, more, more! If
they can pass the national exams and pass the skill tests to get their
certs, we are happy. The topic of good quality providers gets swept
under the carpet. We ask, “Don’t you want high quality, good EMS
providers?” They respond in the affirmative (how can they not?), but
then re-assert, “But ya gotta do it fast!” That is what we are hearing
from agencies that need trained personnel. No one is denying the need,
which is desperate in some areas, but quality cannot be set aside for
speed or quantity.
With training facilities having a “sliding scale” for the necessary
hours, quantity can be substituted for quality. If students can test out,
then they must be competent, right? An individual being tested may
know when to perform a certain skill. He may also know how to perform
a certain skill, but if he does not know why and does not have the
knowledge or the critical thinking skills to back up the how, when, and
why, then he is not a health care provider. He is merely a machine
trained like a robot. As a robot he is unable to tolerate any variance in
the programming. He is stuck “in the box” and cannot climb out of it.
Unique patients that present him or her with inconsistent problems
that may not fit into the classical mold will not receive the care that they
need, or worse, may receive substandard care. That is not the kind of
professional we seek to train in EMS. I not only consider this a detriment
to the profession but dangerous to the public at large.
C
45
INDUSTRIAL SERVICE DIRECTORY
COMPRESSED AIR TESTING
& CERTIFICATION
TRACE ANALYTICS, INC.
15768 Hamilton Pool Rd.
Austin, TX 78738
800/247-1024 • Fax 512/263-0002
FIRE APPARATUS
E-ONE
1601 SW 37th Ave.
Ocala, FL 34474
352/237-1122 • www.e-one.com
“Exclusively in the Foam Business” — Sales & Service
[email protected] • www.airchecklab.com
CONSULTING/TRAINING
EMERGENCY
SERVICES TRAINING
600 Marina Drive
Beaumont, TX 77701
409/833-BEST • Fax 409/833-2376
CHUBB LOSS CONTROL
UNIVERSITY
“Hands On” Fire Protection
Training
Sprinklers Activated, Fire Pumps and More
Sam Lee 908/903-7172
www.chubb.com/lu
FIRE & SAFETY SPECIALISTS INC.
P.O. Box 9161
College Station, TX 77842
979/690-7559 • Fax 979/690-7562
INDUSTRIAL FIRE TRAINING CONSULTANTS
P.O. Box 17947 • Nashville, TN 37217-0947
615/793-5400 • [email protected]
www.iftcfire.com
LSU FIRE & EMERGENCY CONSULTANTS
6868 Nicholson Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70820
800/256-3473 • Fax 225/765-2416
http://feti.lsu.edu • [email protected]
NATIONAL FOAM - KIDDE FIRE FIGHTING
150 Gordon Drive
Exton, PA 19341
24 Hr. Red AlertTM
610/363-1400 • Fax 610/524-9073
www.kidde-fire.com
SALT LAKE CITY ARFF TRAINING
CENTER
P.O. Box 22107
Salt Lake City, UT 84122
www.slcairport.com/arff •
[email protected]
TSB LOSS CONTROL CONSULTANTS
3940 Morton Bend Road – Rome, GA 30161
706/291-1222 • Fax 706/291-2255
www.tsblosscontrol.com
Industrial fire, hazmat & technical rescue training &
consulting — An FM Global company
WILLIAMS FIRE &
HAZARD CONTROL
P.O. Box 1359
Mauriceville, TX 77626
409/727-2347 • Fax 409/745-3021
46
FOAM
1 Rossmoor Drive
Monroe Township, NJ 08831
690/655-7777 • Fax 609/655-9538
E-mail — [email protected]
Ferrara Fire Apparatus, Inc.
Holden, Louisiana
Toll Free 800/443-9006
www.ferrarafire.com
150 Gordon Drive
Exton, PA 19341
24 Hr. Red AlertTM
610/363-1400 • Fax 610/524-9073
www.kidde-fire.com
PIERCE MANUFACTURING
2600 American
Drive
Appleton, WI 54913
920/832-3231 • www.piercemfg.com
150 Gordon Drive
Exton, PA 19341
24 Hr. Red AlertTM
610/363-1400 • Fax 610/524-9073
www.kidde-fire.com
WILLIAMS FIRE &
HAZARD CONTROL
P.O. Box 1359
409/727-2347 • Fax 409/745-3021
FOAM EQUIPMENT
SUTPHEN CORPORATION
P.O. Box 0158
Amlin, OH 43002
800/848-5860
FIRE APPARATUS HARDWARE
HARRINGTON, INC.
2630 West 21st St.
Erie, PA 16506 • 800/553-0078
814/838-3957 • Fax 814/838-7339
TASK FORCE TIPS, INC.
Valparaiso, IN 46383 • 800/348-2686
[email protected] • www.tft.com
“An American Owned Company.”
FIRE FIGHTING & HAZARD CONTROL
WILLIAMS FIRE &
HAZARD CONTROL
P.O. Box 1359
409/727-2347 • Fax 409/745-3021
FIRE PROTECTION
KBS PASSIVE FIRE
Fire Stop Coating &
Penetration Seals
604/941-1001
Fax 604/941-1029 •
www.KBSpassivefire.com
FOAMPRO-HYPRO
375 Fifth Ave. N.W.
New Brighton, MN 55112
651/766-6300 • 800/533-9511 • Fax 651/766-6614
Valparaiso, IN 46383 • 800/348-2686
WILLIAMS FIRE &
HAZARD CONTROL
P.O. Box 1359
409/727-2347 • Fax 409/745-3021
FOAM PUMPS
Manufactured at:
800 Airport Road
North Aurora, IL 60542
Sales Office: 630/859-7000 • Fax 630/859-1226
Visit www.fireworld.com
for details on the
2009 IFW Conference & Expo
FOAM TESTING
HOTELS
MONITORS
150 Gordon Drive
Exton, PA 19341
24 Hr. Red AlertTM
610/363-1400 • Fax 610/524-9073
www.kidde-fire.com
ISO 9001: 2000 Certified
www.dynetechnologies.com
Toll Free: 866/713-2299
Email: [email protected]
HARD SUCTION HOSE
2355 IH-10 South — Beaumont, TX 77705
409/842-3600 • Fax 409/842-0023
e-mail: [email protected]
Valparaiso, IN 46383 • 800/348-2686
HAZMAT EMERGENCY
RESPONSE EQUIPMENT
SKEDCO, INC.
10505 SW Manhasset Drive
Tualatin, OR 97062
503/691-7909 • Fax 503/691-7973
www.skedco.com
21 Commerce Drive
Danbury, CT 06810
888/473-6747 • Fax 203/207-9780
HOSE/HOSE COUPLINGS
150 Gordon Drive
Exton, PA 19341
24 Hr. Red AlertTM
610/363-1400 • Fax 610/524-9073
www.kidde-fire.com
WILLIAMS FIRE &
HAZARD CONTROL
P.O. Box 1359
409/727-2347 • Fax 409/745-3021
HOTELS
COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT
3939 State Highway 6 South
College Station, TX 77845
979/695-8111 •
Fax 979/695-8228
Celebrating 80 Years of Hospitality Excellence
HOLIDAY INN BEAUMONT PLAZA
3950 I-10 S & Walden Rd.
Beaumont, TX 77705
409/842-5995 • Fax 409/842-7878
INCENTIVES/AWARDS/GIFTS
180 Franklin St.
Framingham, MA 01702
www.firecatalog.com • 1-800-729-1482
Gifts, badges, & accessories for firefighters
LDH EQUIPMENT
HARRINGTON, INC
2630 West 21st St.
Erie, PA 16506 800/553-0078
814/838-3957•Fax 814/838-7339
Valparaiso, IN 46383 • 800/348-2686
WILLIAMS FIRE &
HAZARD CONTROL
P.O. Box 1359
409/727-2347 • Fax 409/745-3021
NOZZLES
150 Gordon Drive
Exton, PA 19341
24 Hr. Red AlertTM
610/363-1400 • Fax 610/524-9073
www.kidde-fire.com
Valparaiso, IN 46383 • 800/348-2686
Valparaiso, IN 46383 • 800/348-2686
MONITORS
P.O. Box 86 • Wooster, OH 44691
800/228-1161 • Fax 800/531-7335
[email protected]
www.akronbrass.com
WILLIAMS FIRE &
HAZARD CONTROL
P.O. Box 1359
409/727-2347 • Fax 409/745-3021
RESCUE EQUIPMENT- CONFINED SPACE
SKEDCO, INC.
10505 SW Manhasset Drive
P.O. Box 3390
Tualatin, OR 97062
800/770-7533 • Fax 503/639-4538
www.skedco.com
TURNOUT GEAR
2009 IFW Emergency Responder Conference Specials
• Conference registration at half the cost for five or more
• Company group meeting space available
• Contact [email protected] to make your group’s arrangements.
103 S. Main St.
Quakertown, PA 18951-1119
215/536-2991 • Fax 215/538-2164
[email protected] •www.quakersafety.com
Visit the IFW Store at
www.fireworld.com
47
SPOTLIGHT ADS
48
Sept. 2008:
15-19
22-26
29-Oct. 3
Rope Rescue
Confined Space Rescue
HAZWOPER 40-HR HazMat Technician
Oct. 2008:
6-10
7-9
7-10
14-17
HazMat Chemistry
HazMat On-Scene Incident Commander
Entry Level Industrial Firefighter
Advanced Exterior Industrial Firefighter
EDITORIAL BOARD
INDUSTRIAL
FIRE
WORLD
Richard Coates
Johnson Controls
Mark A. Hawkinson
BP America Production Co.
Robert Stegall
Rio Tinto Mineral Co.
Kendall C. Crawford
Crawford Consulting Associates
John A. Meleta
L.A. County Fire Dept. Capt. (Ret.)
Tommy Sullivan
Howard County (TX) VFD
Woody Cole
Calpine Corporation
Larry Phillips
Northwest Region Fire/Rescue
Thomas G. Talley
Deep South Crane & Rigging Co.
John A. Frank
XL GAP Services
Niall Ramsden
Resource Protection International
Sherrie C. Wilson
Dallas Fire Rescue/Emergency
Management Rescue
Joseph H. Gross
Roberts Company, Inc.
Kenneth Roxberry
Premix Inc.
Robert J. Wood
Chevron (Ret.)
New Products
SMARTDOCK GEN 2
iEVAC FIRE ESCAPE HOOD
AG SERIES GAS BOOSTERS
LifeGuard Technologies®, a division of IMMI,
has announced the introduction of its seat-based
SmartDock Gen 2. SmartDock is an innovative
SCBA holder that enables single-motion
insertion of the SCBA and hands-free release,
without straps or levers.
SmartDock is designed to help protect
firefighters by containing the SCBA and
preventing it from becoming a projectile in the
event of a collision. The Gen 2 design has one
model number and is engineered so it fits with
the majority of SCBAs used in today’s North
American fire departments. With its low
profile, SmartDock interfaces effectively with
a wide variety of fire apparatus seats.
SmartDock was launched in September
2006. When evaluated to the NFPA 1901
Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus,
SmartDock Gen 2 met requirements for
retaining both the cylinder and the pack in
dynamic testing.
SmartDock Gen 2 will be available for
purchase in the fall of 2008. For information
on availability, contact LifeGuard
Technologies® at 866-765-5835 or visit
lifeguardtechnologies.com.
Elmridge Protection Products announces the
introduction of the iEvac® Fire Escape Hood
is first to earn Certification to the new American
Standard ANSI/ISEA110. iEvac® protects
against fire-related risks including toxic gases,
harmful particulates and life-threatening
physical hazards. American certification
involves rigorous independent testing against
many challenges including carbon monoxide,
smoke, hydrogen cyanide, sulfur dioxide, other
gases, particulates, fumes, soot, flammability,
radiant heat & environmental conditioning.
Additional testing has been performed by the
US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological
Center. The iEvac® contains a HEPA filter
that removes more than 99.97% of sub-micron
particles such as anthrax, smallpox &
radioactive particles; also protects against
ammonia, chlorine, phosphine & more. One
universal size can be put on in 30 seconds.
Easy-to-breathe dual-cartridges, compact,
lightweight, vacuum sealed in a foil bag for a
long shelf life. High visibility reflective strips
for easy recognition. Unobstructed view with
eyeglasses. Visit www.elmridgeprotection.com
or call 561.244.8337
A new series of –50 ratio gas boosters offering
higher flow rates and faster fill times for a wide
range of industrial and military applications
has been introduced by Haskel International,
Inc. The AG Series air driven gas boosters can
be oxygen cleaned to meet MIL STD 1330D,
the highest oxygen cleaning standard approved
by the US Navy. The boosters satisfy emerging
requirements for greater gas flow than –30 ratio
units operating at maximum capacity. At the
same time they offer higher gas volumes than –
75 ratio boosters operating at their lowest
pressure. For divers and emergency equipment
operators, this new ratio provides faster fills
at higher pressures for recently developed
smaller, lightweight bottles. It is also designed
for high flow production applications. The
boosters provide outlet pressures up to 15,000
psi (1,034 bar) with built-in cooling. They
require no electricity or airline lubrication. With
assured separation between the air drive and
gas booster sections, they are hydrocarbon free.
Units are available in various configurations of
single stage-single acting, single stage-double
acting and two-stage models. Call 1-818-8434000 or visit www. haskel.com.
49
Preparing
yourself
and your
responders
with
top value,
top quality
&
top training
Make plans to attend the 24th Industrial
Fire World Emergency Responder
Conference & Exposition
• Receive a FREE general admission pass to the IFW conference with a 3year subscription to Industrial Fire World magazine. Subscribe online at
www.fireworld.com.
• Group rates for ½ price are available! Complete the Corporate Sponsor
Form on Page 5.
• Schedule space for your corporate meeting while your chiefs are in one
place. Contact IFW at (979)690-7559.
• Interact with industry professionals for certification and training on
emergency issues to help you excel as an industrial emergency responder.
Visit www.fireworld.com for more information about these 2009 IFW
Conference Workshops:
• ASSE Seminar*
• CFPS Prep Course & Exam*
• Fire Instructor I*
• Flammable Liquids/Storage Tank Fire Protection
• Incident Safety Officer Certified Training*
• LNG Symposium
• New Standards & Technologies
• NFPA 1005: Marine Fire Fighting for Land-based Firefighters*
• NFPA 1081: Leadership Training*
• NIMS 300: Intermediate Incident Command System*
• NIMS 400: Advanced Incident Command System*
• Pre-Emergency Planning for Industrial Facilities
* Fee-added workshop
ProBoard or IFSAC certification courses are italicized.
EMERGENCY RESPONDER
CONFERENCE & EXPO
March 23 - 27, 2009
Beaumont, Texas
Industrial Fire World
emerged 23 years ago
for you, the industrial
emergency responder,
based on the expertise of
IFW publisher David
White. He and other
leading experts gather
each year at the IFW
conference to address
cutting edge issues that
face industrial fire and
emergency response
managers and personnel.
Make sure that your
brigade receives
professional development
through certified and
informational sessions at
the premier
conference
designed
especially
for you.
P.O. Box 9161 • College Station, TX 77845 • PH# 979.690.7559 • FX# 979.690.7562 • E-MAIL [email protected] • www.fireworld.com
WILLIAMS
FP-4C

Firefighters train on Texas props Firefighters train on Texas props

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