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Show Health board reviews chemical disaster hazardous material disaster ,lan. He also pointed out that although lives have been lost in chemical disasters prior to response crews arriving, no lives have been lost after a response. The disaster plan, he said, also provides for an on-scene "dirty ci-cle" ci-cle" to block access to roads. A great deal of training has to go into knowing the size of the management manage-ment circle necessary for various toxic materials. The fire departments depart-ments and other continue to take hazardous material courses to provide pro-vide for public safety. Chief Argyle added that there is as much potential here in Davis I o a. i 1 FARM1NGTON Members of the Davis County Board of Health heard a review of the Hodson chemical che-mical disaster which occurred last April by John Zippro, head of Emergency Services for Davis County, Fire Chief Brent Argyle of the South Davis Fire District and Rich.Harvey of the Davis County Health Department. John Zippro introduced the topic by noting other chemical spills, including in-cluding the spill of hydrochloric acid near Cherry Hill, which put paramedics pa-ramedics at risk. Many other minor situations are also handled on a regular basis in the county. As early ear-ly as 1970, Mr. Zippro told the board, Davis County had devised a County as any place in the state for hazardous material calls. Last month his department responded to eight calls of that kind. Chief Argyle recounted the events of the accident, starting with its discovery discov-ery by William Cline, who also called cal-led 911. One of the problems, he said, was that when the call came in, it was perceived as a medical emergency only. After responding to the call, personnel realized that it was a hazardous material spill incident and attempted to protect themselves by leaving the area. In these kinds of situations the fire department assumes command, and that was put into place for this incident. The fire department had to work Continued on page two NSL chemical disaster discussed Continued from Pag 1 on several important matters at once. People had to be evacuated from the area, the material had to be identified, there had to be measures mea-sures taken to contain the material before it entered the sewer, and decisions had to be made about what to do with contaminated personnel. per-sonnel. A lot of decisions had to be made in a short amount of time. The Salt Lake Hazardous Material Unit was also contacted. When Chief Argyle arrived, he ' assumed command and the command com-mand post was moved back to 400 North and 400 West, and a larger diameter circle of the area cleared. Chief Argyle gold the board that one of the major problems was learning the identity of the material. mate-rial. It was several hours later when they found out that several other chemicals had been mixed into the batch. He- commented that although evacuating the area disrupted businesses like Albertson's Warehouse, Ware-house, the community was very cooperative. An interesting side effect of the accident was that a lot of people away from the area were transported trans-ported to the hospital because they felt ill after hearing about the incident inci-dent through the media. Residents in Rose Park became very concerned con-cerned because of the similarities in addresses. Mr. Zippro commented that a command post with a radio transmission trans-mission was provided by the State Office of Emergency Services. The fire department was hampered because be-cause there were no telephones on the scene and they had to use radios. It was also pointed out that help from Salt Lake or the state , might not be available if the state suffered a more wide spread disaster. dis-aster. Rich Harvey said that the che-v mical they were dealing with was not what they were told it was. Because Be-cause the owner of the company was emotionally involved there was no good source of information to identify the chemicals, and the chemicals were wrongly identified. Although some of the material had spilled into the storm drain and sewer, they were able to block the chemical with gravel. Mr. Harvey commented that Davis County is shifting to light chemical industry. "Chemicals in and of themselves, them-selves, if handled right, are not a . major threat," he said. However, he said, the Hodson incident came close to being a major disaster because be-cause the solvent came close to wetting pallets of other chemicals. The reaction between the two chemicals che-micals causes the release of heat and gas which is extremely toxic, which would have caused a greater tragedy. He said he was impressed by the way people handled things. - He also said that lack of information informa-tion is a major problem, but that new laws are making inroads into the situation. Chief Argyle pointed out that it is difficult for fire departments because be-cause their equipment is geared for structural fires. "Fire fighters are dying because of hazardous materials," mate-rials," he said. "Fire fighting is the most dangerous occupation in the nation." ... The biggest problem is the rapid identification of chemicals. Not all chemicals are placarded properly on trucks moving down the freeway free-way 'and many chemicals have names that sound similar, although their properties are very different, different. |