Haz-Mat Incidents Bad Enough, Advice Shouldn’t Be Worse
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The Editor’s Opinion Page
As chemicals are used in increasing quantities to sustain the quality of life in the United States, fire fighters are going to become involved increasingly in hazardous materials incidents.
The record shows that tragic incidents have struck in both large cities and rural communities. Therefore, hazardous materials have become a universal problem to the fire service.
What makes the problem worse than it should be is the growing realization that the emergency information systems are—one might say—bombing out. No less an authority than the National Transportation Safety Board called attention to the quibbling and quavering among the “technical advisers” and the guideline tomes with their varied suggestions.
Specifically, the NTSB condemned the failure of the “experts” to agree on how to handle a phosphorus trichloride spill in a railroad yard in Somerville, Mass., in April 1980. The NTSB pointed out that technical advisers “had not reached agreement on how to handle the emergency” after being on the scene seven hours. The safety board, which reports directly to the President and therefore pulls no punches, complained that even the hazardous materials guidebooks offered “contradictory and ambiguous advice.”
The safety board concluded that as long as technical advisers cannot agree on what to do, then it doubted that “fire fighters will be provided with reliable, consistent advice for handling such emergencies.” The NTSB also told the U.S. Department of Transportation to take another look at the haz-mat guidebooks and make certain that they are useful.
Now that order is as refreshing as a gulp of cool water after an attic fire in August. Recognition of the fire service’s responsibilities in hazardous materials incidents is long overdue in the hallways along the Potomac. The manufacturers, the shippers, and even the individual truck drivers have been heard attentively by the regulators. The fire service has seen its recommendations on placarding trucks and railroad cars modified to soothe almost everyone except those who are called to handle the hazardous materials incidents.
It seems only equitable that as fire fighters try to pick up the pieces after others have made their mistakes, the advice to fire fighters should be accurate and represent the best thinking on the specific problem. It should reflect the latest knowledge and it should be useful—not just theoretical.
It shouldn’t be too much to ask the experts to do all their arguing before the incident occurs and not while fire fighters are trying to control the situation as they sort through conflicting bits of advice.
For a starter, the DOT might take a look at the page in its newest haz-mat guidebook that proposes water as an extinguishing agent for gasoline fires.
