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Show J Vernal Express Wednesday, June 27, 2007 A3 PART TWO TOXIC HIGHWAYS HAZMAT volunteers: sacrificing to keep this areas roads safe Editor's note: This article is the second installment in a two-part series that details the recent increase in commercial traffic hauling hazardous materials on the Basin's highways. This features some of the Basin's HAZMAT volunteers who have dedicated their time towards savin lives. By Lacey McMurry Terry Stringham has put himself in more life-threatening situations than he can count. What's even harder to believe is that he and the 20 other volunteers volun-teers on the Roosevelt City Fire Department do it all voluntarily, week after week, for practically non-existent pay. Stringham, Roosevelt City assistant as-sistant fire chief, has more than just fires to worry about these days. The often-dangerous task of cleaning up after hazardous material spills has been heaped onto his already full plate. Even for a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie like Stringham, String-ham, respondingto the HAZMAT calls that put him within inches of toxic chemicals and other volatile substances can be frightening. "I always have that fear in the back of my head, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Once you lose that, you become a problem," he said. "For me, responding isn't as scary as thinking what might happen 20 years down the road if I 'm accidentally exposed to some of the stuff we deal with. That's what keeps me up at night." A Pro-Active Approach Up until about five years ago, members of the Roosevelt City Fire Department couldn't do much more than watch at the scene of hazardous materials spills. Stringham said it was then volunteer firefighters decided they wanted to obtain the additional ad-ditional training they needed to be more proactive. Today, all Roosevelt firefighters firefight-ers are required to complete HAZMAT awareness training train-ing which means they can help evacuate and divert traffic from the scene of an accident and provide support to those cleaning up a hazardous spill. Additionally, 12 of the 20 volunteers are certified at an UiotaliHScto - uly 6,h & 7 2007 Ifyou have contact info for any of the "missing classmates" listed below, or ifyou need additional information about the reunion, please call Ann Hunting at 789-0082. Kent Bigelow Keith Boehmer Yvonne Baldwin Juliana Blackstock Randy Booher Patty Byrum Lisa Coombs Donald Cattoor Dave Disco Richard Carter Vernon Calder Mike Dockery Carl Fessenden II II 3 operations level which means they have completed a 60 hour course and are qualified to go into an accident "warm zone" to help divert hazardous materials from water sources or from spreading along the ground. "We started prepping five or six years ago to get to the point where we are today," Stringham said. "We were pretty much helpless help-less before whenever there were spills and we knew we needed to be able to take more control of the situation." Uintah County has about the same number of certified HAZMAT responders as Duchesne Duch-esne County. In the Basin, HAZMAT teams are closely coupled with fire departments for training purposes, but law enforcement officers, oilfield employees, health department officials and everyday civilians all help round out local crews. Lincoln Brown is one of Uintah County's four certified technicians. As a technician, Brown has completed hundreds of hours of coursework and regular monthly training courses and is qualified to go into an accident "hot zone" to plug up holes in truck tanks or other compromised storage facilities. Brown and the other crew-members crew-members aren't paid or compensated compen-sated in any way for the hours they spend completing HAZMAT training, attending mandatory monthly meetings, or cleaning up after emergencies. Pending ongoing negotiations with county emergency officials, volunteers also answer HAZMAT emergency emer-gency calls with the realization that if they are injured, they will have to pick up their own hospital tabs. Despite this lack of compensation, compensa-tion, Brown a program director and operations manager for a Vernal radio station said the decision to voluntarily put himself him-self at risk was pretty straightforward. straight-forward. "Someone asked me once why I do what I do," Brown said. "My answer was that there was a need that has to be filled and a job that needs to be done, and someone has to do it. For most of us on the HAZMAT team, this is just the way we give back to our community. Vickie Caldwell Becky Case lames Currie Donnie Davis Faron Dugan ay Dee Harris Patricia Hatch Cindy James ody )ewkes Karen ohnson Judith Hildreth Larry Mallahan Mike Mobley The Perils of Preparation Prepara-tion For Basin HAZMAT crews, answering the beeper call that brings them face-to-face with potentially po-tentially hazardous substances isn't the only risky decision they make. As veterans of the clean-up crew will tell you, volunteers actually put themselves in danger dan-ger every time they suit up in their cumbersome protective gear - whether for an actual emergency or a simple practice session. In their airtight, fully enclosed gear - or "moon suits" - volunteers volun-teers must deal with sweltering heat, claustrophobia, fogged up goggles, and the fatigue of carrying carry-ing around a 40-pound personal air tank. In the summer, when temperatures can sometimes hover around 100 degrees, the combination of these factors is potentially lethal. "What you end up with is a bunch of 40-year-old men who are all risking heart attacks and heat prostration," Brown said. "When it's hot, you have sweat dripping in your eyes. It's difficult to see in there, it's hard to walk and hard to hear, and you are totally encapsulated and shut off from the outside world." As far as HAZMAT emergencies emergen-cies are concerned, officials say no amount ofbooklearning or table-top table-top simulations can ever compare to real-life practice. As a result, crews in both Duchesne and Uintah counties engage in mock HAZMAT accident scenarios as frequently as possible. Jeremy Raymond, director of the Uintah County Fire Suppression Sup-pression Special Service District, said officials are in the process of planning a comprehensive scenario sce-nario in August that will involve multiple agencies and give first responders the opportunity to practice cleansing patients who have been "contaminated." Roosevelt firefighters also frequently fre-quently practice diverting chemical chemi-cal spills in the summer by flooding the fire station parking lot with water and pushing it in the direction they want it to go, Stringham said. "When that pager goes off, adrenaline always becomes a big factor," he said. What we're trying to do is get people trained to the point that they can give an automatic response. No one should go in there until everyone knows exactly what to do in any given situation. That's the only way to keep a level head." Saving Lives Today, Stringham said, that long-ago decision fire department volunteers made to become more proactive during HAZMAT emergencies emer-gencies is a "pretty big deal." Instead of waiting helplessly for teams from the Wasatch Front to arrive on the scene, there are now enough qualified crew members to begin mitigating the situation and decontaminating victims. Fortunately, Stringham said crews haven't yet encountered an accident scene where people have come in direct contact with hazardous substances. But these days, local highways are a virtual parade of toxic substances, and Stringham said having someone on hand to give immediate aid could mean the difference between be-tween life and death. "With chemical spills, you don't want to take people to the hospital until they've been decontaminated because they can spread it everywhere," he said. "The longer someone sits with a substance all over them, their chances of survival go down greatly. But now that we're trained, we can arrive in time to help people and give them a fighting fight-ing chance. That's the number one thing we're looking at: saving lives." Grand Entry Flag Carriers Forthe Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo Must be 14 to participate and experience is required. Please contact Kimmie Wall if interested 722-3746 or 823-3746 I K W m f -i' m Si, J Main Street extended from Vgl 'TS ' ''.! K&' l fr 1500 West to 2500 West S' ' ) -V'l 0 - : L Wj 2000 West constructed from 500 North fY;" -' , fifaf ' 1 (Maeser Highway) to Canal Road. V "Ct "?$(l iRl S " ' fe2 : file ft qjfflf iBsiY ' if) Amap of planned access forthe Uintah Basin Applied Technology College and Utah State University's Vernal campus visualizes the extension of Main Street and the newer access with 2000 West. Plans for Main Street, 2000 West project configuration finalized ttihaurm Sense Express Writer The Main Street extension project nears completion of design, de-sign, according to Troy Ostler, CIVCO engineer for the project. After meetings with the Uintah County Commission, Vernal City Council and various property owners, final changes have been made to the alignment and property prop-erty is being acquired as needed for the route. , At a June 6 meeting, Ken Bassett, representing Vernal; all of the Uintah County commissioners commis-sioners and the transportation district reached final decisions regarding several issues of interest inter-est to the community. The final roadway will be four travel lanes, and a bicycle and parking lane. In all, the asphalt will be 64 feet. A 9.5 foot planter strip and walkway and 2.5 feet of curb and gutter will border each side. Utilities will be buried between be-tween the walkway and the curb and gutter so there will not be future need to cut the asphalt. Uintah County is pursuing a 100-foot corridor throughout most of the project. The intersection inter-section of Main Street and 2000 W. will be designed as a roundabout. round-about. Decorative bridges will be placed over Steinaker Canal at McNaughton Gulch. In an earlier joint meeting, the city and county requested changes to this configuration, which included landscaping, lighting and irrigation of the utility area. Utilities lines will be placed at assigned depths, different for each type of utility. util-ity. The board decided that the landscaping would not be a big problem for access to the utility lines because breaks dd not occur often, and tearing into landscaping landscap-ing would be better than cutting asphalt. Because this will be a gateway to the Uintah Basin Applied Technology Center and USU Extension building, the commission commis-sion expressed the importance of making it attractive and inviting. The final motion passed with a 4 to 1 vote. The planter strip will be landscaped with trees and water efficient plants. Plans include the development of an underground retention system for storm water runoff.. The issue of maintenance was also decided. Vernal and Uintah County officials indicated a willingness to maintain the V Dinosaur Xjpundup Rodeo ParM 7 is coming July llth! . flf It will begin at 5:00 pm in front of Vernal Middle -Vi I School, then travel down Main Street. 1 Anyone and Everyone is invited to participate. Jj The Theme this year is mm7 '"'- "Rdeo..-A Family Tradition". 7 Entry forms can be picked up at the Vernal 7 -a,. Chamber Office Vrk M locf Y k kki ffy WMa v'b&U i , 1J -4f ! NM VERNAL 543 North Varnal Avwhm 789-3241 landscaped portion, which runs for the entire two miles. CIVCO will proceed with the advertisement for proposals of bridges. Utility contractors are being urged to coordinate their construction. At the time of the meeting, it was not known when the UBATCUSU building con-; struction will begin. The center ' asphalt could be started before utility construction is completed but the full width of the project may have to wait on the utility ' work. 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