Confined Space Recovery Incident

BY EDWARD A. TRACEY AND GREGORY W. BORDEN

On January 25, 2017, in Monroe County, the Rochester (NY) Fire Department’s (RFD’s) Technical Rescue Team (TRT) responded to assist with the removal of a confirmed fatality from a railcar material offloading accident at what became a multiagency response.

In Livingston County, dispatchers received a call at approximately 10:19 a.m. that a male worker had fallen into a hopper car in Lakeville, about 30 miles south of Rochester. According to news reports, the victim was trying to clear a product jam while unloading granular fertilizer from a covered hopper railcar when he slipped into the car and the material engulfed him. Coworkers attempted to rescue the victim but had difficulty accessing him. The initial local response included the Lakeville, Livonia, Avon, and York fire departments. The Livingston County responding agencies included the emergency medical services, the Emergency Management Office, and the Sheriff’s Office. Despite their combined efforts, a confined space recovery operation was needed.

At 11:23 a.m., the RFD’s TRT was advised that a fatal accident had occurred inside a railcar in Lakeville and that it would be responding to assist the local fire departments with a confined space body recovery.

Preparation

The RFD TRT is composed of Rescue 11, Truck 10, Engine 17, and Engine 13. The units cross-train to the technician level in rope, confined space, structural collapse, and trench rescue disciplines. Many TRT members are also hazardous material technicians and part of the city’s hazmat team. The RFD TRT trains with and responds alongside the Monroe County Fire Bureau Special Operations Unit (MCFBSOU) to technical rescue incidents outside of the city and is a core component of confined space, structural collapse, and trench rescue responses. The RFD has invested heavily in training members in many aspects of technical rescue including rope, trench, confined space, structural collapse, swiftwater, flood, ice, machinery, and vehicle rescue in recent years. The investment in training, resources, and interagency cooperation paid off in this multiagency coordinated response.

(1) Personnel prepare the tube kit to attach to the vacuum truck for material offloading. (Photo by Jamie Renner.)

Operations

The incident occurred at a railcar unloading site where product is removed using a built-in auger system. The victim had entered through the top of the railcar and tried to break up a crusted-over layer of granular fertilizer with a tool. He fell through the crust and was engulfed in the material. First-responding firefighters had attempted to access the victim through the opening in the top of the railcar, but they recognized the danger as a confined space and were removed because of responder safety concerns. The responders made the difficult decision to cease rescue efforts.

On-scene first responders informed responding RFD units that the operation was a recovery. The RFD TRT was part of a coordinated multiagency response that brought responders of the Livingston County fire departments and response agencies, the MCFBSOU, Monroe County Department of Environmental Services, and New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services—Office of Fire Prevention and Control (NYS OFPC) personnel into a command and operation system focused on safely removing the victim from the railcar.

RFD Rescue 11, Truck 10, Engines 13 and 17, Tech Rescues 1 and 2, Safety Captain (C-99), and the Battalion 2 (B2) chief were dispatched to the scene following a briefing with MCFBSOU personnel. En route, TRT members began planning possible on-scene actions based on information received from on-scene personnel.

(2) Firefighters work to remove the granular fertilizer from the railcar. The lower hopper discharge chute and the mechanical fertilizer removal system are visible. (Photo by Jamie Renner.)

The RFD assignment arrived at the incident scene at 12:33 p.m. and began planning for a confined space entry and a dignified body recovery. The RFD’s battalion chief met with command officers and relayed RFD TRT capabilities and assisted in formulating an incident action plan (IAP).

RFD TRT members were informed that the victim was deceased after having been engulfed by granular ammonium sulfate. The victim’s head was buried in product; his feet were visible through the hopper discharge at the bottom of the railcar. The material safety data sheets (MSDSs) and other reference information obtained for ammonium sulfate indicated that personnel should don Level B hazardous materials suits and supplied air respiratory (SAR) protection to address skin-exposure and inhalation concerns.

A primary concern was removing product from the car to ensure an open area for the confined space technicians and prevent further engulfment. At 1:13 p.m., a vacuum truck from Monroe County Department of Environmental Services (MCDES) arrived. MCFBSOU personnel attached an eight-inch tube kit to the vacuum truck and removed the product. The recovery plan called for personnel working on top near the railcar’s hatch to remove as much product as feasible from the railcar. High points rigged under the Livonia Fire Department’s platform apparatus provided fall protection to ensure rescuer safety during the vacuuming operation.

RFD hazardous materials response and NYS OFPC personnel bonded and grounded the vacuum truck to reduce any chance of a static charge. According to the railcar’s hazardous MSDS, the granular material could create a large and potentially explosive combustible dust cloud. The two tons of material were removed completely by 3:17 p.m.

Concurrent with the material removal operations, RFD TRT personnel filled technical rescue operations, safety, rigging, entry officer, entry rescuers, backup rescuers, communications, air source, and hazard control positions, which were deemed essential for a confined space entry. The Livonia and Avon departments and Lakeville railroad personnel addressed space-isolation procedures, including lock-out/tag-out, which the RFD TRT confirmed. Railroad security personnel confirmed that the railcar brake was engaged and the car’s wheels were chocked at the rail in both directions.

First responders performed the initial atmospheric monitoring using their own instruments, later supplemented with equipment from the NYS OFPC. RFD hazardous materials response team members assumed metering and monitoring functions on arrival. Ventilation was considered but was withheld to avoid having material blow around and create a dust cloud.

To access the railcar platform, portable ladders were placed to the top of the railcar, and rescuers used Livonia’s platform apparatus for rope rigging high points for fall protection and confined space operations.

The confined space entry officer was positioned on the top of the railcar and primarily communicated with the confined space technicians through visual and verbal communication with portable radios as a backup. There was concern that the victim might have been entangled in piping or in the offloading mechanism and would require disentanglement, but that was not the case. RFD TRT members made entry into the confined space to access the victim using a 14-foot roof ladder that was lowered into the railcar. Both entrants wore Class III rescue harnesses and were attached to mainline and belay ½-inch life safety rescue ropes. Members also used a small, portable work platform inside the railcar for positioning.

Accessing and Removing the Victim

The RFD TRT members’ tasks were to access the victim, ensure there was no entanglement, and package and prepare the victim for removal. The operation took about 21 minutes, during which time the RFD firefighters went on SAR protection, entered the railcar, prepared the victim for removal, and exited the confined space. While in the railcar, the rescuers attached a webbing cinch strap around the victim’s chest, connected the strap to the victim’s main rope, and had the rigging group haul a short distance to help position the victim for removal. This allowed complete access to the victim for packaging. The victim was then lowered the short distance from a vertical to a horizontal orientation into a recovery bag laid out in a litter basket. The entry team finished victim packaging and directed the rigging group to raise the litter basket to the lip of the railcar entry point. The two confined space rescuers exited the railcar and began decontamination operations while other personnel ensured that the top of the railcar was shrouded by multiple large tarps for victim privacy. In a coordinated effort, the litter basket was raised out of the railcar and lowered to the ground. The body was turned over to the Livingston County medical examiner at 3:48 p.m.

(4) The confined space technicians prepare to make entry into the railcar. Other personnel attend to ropes, communications, and SAR lines. (Photo by Jamie Renner.)

Lessons Learned and Reinforced

• Enforce scene security. Personnel not directly involved with the incident should not be in the hot zone. Clearly delineate work areas using barrier tape or other methods. It is vital to reinforce the concepts of hot, warm, and cold zones.
• Take orders from and report only to your supervisor. If other personnel try to assign you to other tasks, have them speak to your direct supervisor, since you already have assignments.
• Incorporate ventilation into confined space entry. Although not implemented at this incident, you should incorporate ventilation into confined space entry. It was not used here because it was believed the material would become airborne and create a combustible dust hazard. Consider providing fresh air with the blower even if no hazards are apparent. Providing ventilation is a best practice, ensuring a purge of any air in the space and potentially providing for a safe ambient environment for rescuers in a mask emergency.
• Hazmat response. Initially, the RFD TRT received information indicating that a hazmat component was already on scene and staffed, so it did not dispatch its hazmat team. The TRT’s hazmat technicians are familiar with a cache of metering, monitoring, and mitigation equipment. Per RFD dispatch guidelines, any local dispatch for a trench, confined space, or structural collapse incident in the city of Rochester includes the hazmat response team; adding the team on mutual-aid responses is being discussed. This also underscores the necessity of typing resources to “speak the same language” when requesting assets, in which the RFD is engaged.
• High points. When using a ladder or a bucket for a high point, line up the mainline somewhere between the beams of the ladder. Failure to do this will cause a side load on the ladder, possibly resulting in mainline failure and significant damage to the apparatus. The benefit of establishing a second aerial high point for line management was recognized. Five separate rope rescue lines were run through one high point in the incident: two for the entrants, one mainline for victim recovery, and two fall protection lines for personnel at the opening.
• Alternative action plans. A good rescue team can implement the rescue plan while developing alternate rescue plans. Plan A worked in this case, but rescuers had discussed multiple options and began to stage personnel and equipment for alternate access and removal tactics.

The incident’s safe and efficient outcome was the result of training and equipment investment, rescuer proficiency, and years of interagency cooperation. It is vital to train with other special operations teams with which you may respond to ensure that responder capabilities are understood. It is also important to address response procedures before an emergency for nonfire department equipment such as the MCDES vacuum truck. Years before this response, a written memorandum of understanding automatically provided for the dispatch of a vacuum truck for trench and engulfment incidents.

Author’s note: Thanks to Battalion Chief Mike Dobbertin, Lieutenant Jamie Renner, and NYS OFPC Fire Protection Specialist Larry Babcock for their assistance in preparing this article.

References

Leader, M. (2017, January 26). “Update: Victim in fatal Lakeville fertilizer accident identified.” Livingston County News. Retrieved on 4/12/2017 from http://bit.ly/2ypOCUq.

Freile, VE, MacIntyre-Yee, T, and Cleveland, W. (2017, January 25). “Man killed after falling into hopper car in Lakeville.” Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved on 4/12/2017 from http://on.rocne.ws/2xmO6Io.

EDWARD A. TRACEY, Ed.D, is a 24-year veteran of the fire service and has served the past 15 years with the Rochester (NY) Fire Department (RFD). He is the captain of the rescue company and co-manages the RFD’s technical rescue training, response, and typing programs. Additionally, he is a fire service and technical rescue instructor for the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services’ Office of Fire Prevention and Control.

GREGORY W. BORDEN is a 27-year veteran of the fire service and a lieutenant assigned to the Rochester (NY) Fire Department’s Heavy Rescue Company. He is a technical rescue instructor for the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services’ Office of Fire Prevention and Control Special Operations Bureau.