Chemical Fumes Cause Mall Evacuation
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Chemical leak mitigated, mall evacuated, and panic averted as haz-mat unit sticks to disciplined basics.
A 55-gallon drum of discarded chemical drain cleaner was dumped into a 40-cubic yard container in the center of an underground service area of a large, covered mall complex in Hicksville, NY. Within a very short time, a growing vapor cloud would cause the evacuation of several thousand weekend, holiday shoppers from the Mid-Island Plaza Mall.
Response
Maintenance workers nearby noticed a vapor cloud rising from a commercial dumpster located beneath the heart of the mall. Thinking it to be a carelessly started rubbish fire, the workers began to routinely apply water from a nearby utility hose. To their consternation, the vapor cloud began to grow at an alarming rate. The fumes were irritating and the workers evacuated. An alarm was transmitted to the Hicksville Fire Department at 11:51 A.M. on Saturday, December 1, 1984.
Chief Owen Magee arrived shortly thereafter. His immediate size-up revealed:
- A container of the chemical cleaner sodium hydroxide (NaOH, or lye) had been discarded into a dumpster. Evidently it had reacted with other substances.
- The huge, toxic cloud was still growing and now threatened to expose the life hazard in the crowded stores above.
- Quick chemical reference indicated a poisonous, toxic, corrosive, heat-generating product.
Photo by Glenn Usdin
- All personnel from the underground area had been accounted for.
Chief Magee realized the enormous, complex problem he faced. He had already requested the response of the Nassau County Police Department for traffic and crowd control in the mall on the busy shopping weekend. This was a routine action to gain access for fire apparatus response and positioning. He asked that additional police respond to assist with the enormous evacuation problem at hand.
Chief Magee ordered the response of Hicksville’s wellequipped and trained haz-mat unit. He also requested the team from the town of East Meadow as back-up. At the same time, he ordered the response of additional ladder units from Jericho and Bethpage to assist Hicksville’s two ladder units in the evacuation efforts.
On arrival of the haz-mat team, members were ordered to don protective equipment and gain size-up and identification information from within the mall tunnel. Communications confirmed preliminary information of the sodium hydroxide spill and vapor cloud reaction. There was also by now a fire of small proportions generated within the dumpster. This rubbish fire, however, posed no threat to the mall.
Realizing that the huge vapor cloud would force the toxic vapors into the mall faster than the civilians could evacuate, Chief Magee ordered units to put their initial efforts into slowing down the entry rate of the vapors.
At his command post, Chief Magee had charts of the various aspects of the Mid-Island Mall. Using these, he ordered the firstarriving fire units to seal off all rubbish chutes, stairways, and other vertical arteries to the tunnel from the occupied store areas. This was accomplished, as best as possible, with tape and salvage covers. Within 15 minutes, vertical arteries were reported sealed, and evacuation was underway with the cooperation of the police units that responded.
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Photos by Glenn Usdin
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Hoping to gain additional evacuation time, Chief Magee ordered that the ventilation system of the large four-story department store be reversed. He also ordered that the entrance doors be sealed with tape. The positive pressure that developed would give evacuators additional time to remove those in close proximity to the fumes and keep the spreading vapor away from the large life hazard contained within the selling floors of the department store.
Chief Magee had by now established a primary command post, a medical triage and treatment area, a staging area for arriving apparatus, and a haz-mat unit command post. Experience had shown that haz-mat units at a growing emergency needed an area restricted and supervised and with a view of the incident to accomplish the initial and changing tactics necessary for mitigation.
A clearly defined “hot” zone was established around the tunnel entrance. Members also began construction of a decontamination sight nearby.
Floodlight units were requested for tunnel illuminations, an air charging unit was requested by mutual aid from the town of Syosset, and additional ventilation fans and tarpaulins were requested from Bethpage.
Upon conferring with the initial size-up team, it was decided to remove the entire dumpster to the outer area where the leaking container and spill could be repackaged and sealed. At 12:40 A.M., Chief Magee ordered two sand trucks and a dumpster pick-up and removal apparatus to respond to the scene.
The dumpster pick-up unit arrived within 30 minutes. Chief Magee ordered members of his haz-mat team to be trained in the operation of the unit. Properly protected Hicksville firefighters then backed the truck into the tunnel and removed the dumpster to an outside area (much to the relief of the anxious civilian driver).
The haz-mat team members removed the container from the dumpster and packed it in a recovery drum. The burning material was covered with spedi-dry and then sand. The Nassau County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, on the scene, made arrangements to have the chemical and its residue transported to a waste disposal site. All areas affected were cleaned up. Checks of all areas of the mall assured that ventilation procedures had removed the toxic and corrosive vapor thread, and the mall reopened 3 hours and 20 minutes after the initial response arrived.
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Critique and its lessons
- Preplan. There is no way to measure the amount of time, trouble, etc., a preplan saves. The availability of the maintenance supervisor to the command post, the location of heavy-duty construction equipment, special equipment location (such as the dumpster truck) and their phone numbers, and the ability to notify and request response of proper officials were just some of the valuable and timeconsuming informational and support services available almost immediately.
- Training. We have to expel the idea that hazardous material training is only for the “team.” The team does the hands on, yes, but all responders must have a general working knowledge of “haz-mat, first in—what to do.” All are part of the team in one aspect or another. Knowledge of logistics and operations beforehand will contribute to a safe and efficient operation.
- Staging areas. The value for such operations was underscored. Incoming equipment and man-power remained at the central locations and were available until needed. As word of the emergency spread, services were besieged with phone calls, and the staging area provided a place for a media center. The media had to be dealt with then, not later. The staging area was an informational release center away from the vital decision-making commandpost area.
- Communications. Separate command centers (medical, haz-mat,
- logistic, water, safety, etc.) were maintained. They funneled only necessary information into the overall command post.
- Haz-mat team lessons. Additional training with suits was indicated. Although overall efficiency of operations within the protective suits was of the highest order, small manipulative operations (such as opening plug and dike kits) proved to be difficult.
- Excess manpower. At large-scale operations, members
Photos by Glenn Usdin
Statistics compiled from Dow Chemical Company
- 45,000 chemicals are in use today
- 250,000 hazardous material shipments are made in the U.S. daily (this does not include gasoline or oil)
- 65 million haz-mat shipments per year
- 6,500 haz-mat incidents per year and expanding rapidly
- must be kept under control. Assignments must be given just to keep the members occupied. If they are not assigned a task, they will explore and expose themselves unnecessarily. A command post at the staging area under the direction of a chief officer worked well for us. If tasks are scarce, have the excess units and manpower return to quarters.
- Decontamination. The site must be isolated and controlled. Members not involved or properly protected get too close. (See pictures of the proximity of unprotected members observing the decontamination proceedings.)
