Fire department

Hydrogen chloride is produced when PVC bums. A series of tests for the Federal Aviation Administration studied this issue. In those studies, test animals were able to survive exposures to hydrogen chloride reaching 10,000 ppm (190). More recent studies indicate less of a potential for delayed effects on lung function than expected (191). In a typical fire, hydrogen chloride levels rarely exceed 300 ppm, a fact confirmed by the Boston Fire Department and Harvard University (192). In hundreds of autopsies conducted on fire victims in the United States, not one death has been linked to the presence of PVC. 

City fire department Packages, packaging machinery, packaging facilities, and materials... 

Are there appropriate planning, training, drills, and equipment for response to emergencies If yes, ask to review the emergency response plan and training records. Be aware that for some facilities, an acceptable plan is to evacuate and call the fire department. 

Have there been any fires or fire department responses at the facility within the last five years ... 

Is the responding fire department a paid department (Note distance.) ... 

Emergency response (including fire department) actions and planning ... 

The local fire department may have all of the resources that your site would need in handling the worst possible site emergency. At the other extreme, the fire department may be not be equipped properly, may be poorly qualified, or may be unable to respond quickly or adequately to a site emergency without adequate assistance from other sources. No matter what the level of competence of the local fire department, they typically know how emergency situations should be handled and know where to look to get the assistance needed should an emergency occur. 

If there is a chemical plant or factory nearby, there is a good possibility that the local fire department has an agreement with the factory to use their emergency equipment should the need arise. 

A good relationship with local fire departments, local police departments, and city officials is encouraged. We recommend working closely with all branches of government, especially fire and police departments. 

According to EPCRA, facilities should provide either an MSDS or a list of chemicals to the SERC, LEPC, and local fire department. If facilities choose to supply only a list, the list should include specific information including health hazards, fire hazards, reactivity hazards, and physical data for every chemical on the list. Although only a list is required, the additional requirements for specific information makes the submission of only a list a rare occurrence. The use of MSD sheets is one of the most commonly used tools to convey this information. 

Eacilities should complete an emergency and hazardous chemical inventory. Because inventories change, it is typical to see the inventory list contain ranges for the amounts of chemicals on hand. This inventory is to be submitted to the LEPC, SERC, and local fire department [2]. 

This applies particularly to the need for coordination by DOE sites with off-site response personnel and agencies (e.g., mutual aid agreements and public alert mechanisms). EPA has provided guidance to communities and fire departments for identifying, acquiring, and maintaining HAZMAT response equipment and trained personnel appropriate for their locale. 

Pre-incident planning, coordination, and notification procedures with outside parties as required by 29 CFR 1910.120. (Start with your local fire department—it may have more expertise than you are aware of)... 

Notes of a meeting attended by loeal fire departments, EPA, and Site J eontraetors, however, indieated that fire prevention, firefighting proeedures, and potential hazardous exposures oeeurring as the result of fire were diseussed and that loeal fire response teams and other site eontraetors would be made aware of eurrent hazards. 

The cit> developed an Industrial Mutual Aid System that has been copied all over the world. It incorporates resources from city government, police and fire departments and all of the industries at the port. Emergencies covered in the plan range from simple chemical spills and vapor leaks up to Category Five hurricanes and jetliner crashes. 

The city s fire department now has 60 full-time employees, modern fire engines, foam-spraying trucks and other vehicles to combat hazardous materials spills and fires of all sizes. 

A plant team working with the Pampa fire department brought the fire under control. The Chemical Manufacturers Association s Community Awareness Emergency Response Program (CARE), developed after the Bhopal disaster was credited with effectiveness of their efforts in putting out the fire. 

The fire department blamed the accident on welders cutting in hazardous areas without a fire watch, highly combustible structural components (fiber-glass-resin), high-density storage of highly flammable and detonable material, spilled ammonium perchlorate about the plant, and high w ind conditions. 

The fire department was called. In an attempt to rescue him, the fire fighters started to cut an opening in the side of the tank. The tank exploded, killing one fire fighter and injuring 15 others. The man who had entered the tank also died, probably from asphyxiation [24]. 

In 1966, a naphtha tanker, the Alva Cape, was involved in a collision near New York and was severely damaged. Some naphtha was spilled, and the rest was pumped out into another vessel. The owners wanted to move the ship to a shipyard where it could be gas-freed and the damage could be surveyed, but the New York Fire Department said that the ship s tanks should be inerted before it was moved. The salvage company, therefore, ordered some carbon dioxide cylinders and hoses. Two tanks were inerted without incident, but when carbon dioxide was discharged into a third tank, an explosion occurred, followed by a fire. Four men were killed, and further explosions occurred in other tanks when they were heated by the fire. 

The fire destroyed a farmhouse, six outbuildings, and an automobile. Two other houses and a car were damaged. Two persons died in the farmhouse. Three persons who lived across the highway from the rupmred pipeline had heard the pipeline burst and were fleeing their house when the propane ignited. All three persons received bums on over 90% of their bodies, and one later died from the bums. Fire departments extinguished smaller fires in the woods and adjacent homes. 

A tank burst when exposed to fire for 90 minutes. During this time the Fire Department had, on advice of the refinery staff, used the available water for cooling surrounding tanks to prevent the fire spreading. The relief valve, it was believed, would prevent the tank bursting. They failed to realize that the tank could burst because the metal could get too hot and lose its strength. Below the liquid level the boiling liquid kept the metal cool, but above the liquid level the metal softened and burst at a pressure below that at which the relief valve would operate. 

The plan must describe arrangements agreed to by local police departments, fire departments, hospitals, contractors, and state and local emergency response teams to coordinate emergency scr iccs... 

Material safety data sheets or list of MSDS cheniictils submitted to SERC, LEPC, and local fire department [Section 311(d))... 

In general, every material safety data sheet should provide the local emergency plamiing committee and tlie fire department in each conmiunity with tlie name of tlie chemical covered, as well as such general characteristics (see Table 2.6.4) as ... 

The above data should be useful for tlie planning to be accomplished by tlie local emergency planning committee and first responders, especially fire departments and HAZMAT teams. Both tlie hazards analysis (discussed in detail in Parts II and IV) and tlie development of emergency countermeasures should be facilitated by the availability of MSDS information. If significant new information regarding a chemical is discovered, revised material safely data sheets must be submitted. 

The iiifornialioii from Tier II and on-site inspections should help the local fire department in the development of prefire plans. Tlie information submitted by facilities midcr Sections 311 and 312 must generally be made available to tlie public by state and local govermneiits during normal working hours. 

Although a plan for a city dii ided by a river may not be applicable to a desert city on a seismic fault, duplication can be an enemy of cost efficiency. Thus wherever possible, any emergency plans diat already exist in die community should be used as a starting point. Coinmunity groups diat may have developed such plans include civil defense organizadons, fire departments, die Red Cross, public health agencies, and local industry councils. Existing plans should be studied and their applicability to the proposed community plan evaluated. 

The sounding of fire department alaniis in different ways to itidicate emergencies of certain kinds... 

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