Tactical Fire Problem - Haz Mat

This week the scenario is an unknown vapor cloud from an industrial facility.
As always you can pause the scenario to review before it expands.


Some thoughts:

1.) One would hope that at a facility of this size there would be some sort of planning document available, maybe even with a tactical or operational pre-plan.

2.) At a facility with a large number of tanks there could be a variety of substances on site. The first rule of Haz mat is to identify the substance. What steps and methods and sources of information will you use to identify the product?

3.) Haz mats come in solids liquids and gases. The most difficult to mange is probably a gas because of the large volume and area it might cover. Solids can be contained, leaks can be plugged and patched, dammed and diked. A vapor leak will tend to travel. Using your departments resources and mutual aid, what is your course of action in this incident?(After identification of course)

4 ) On a sheet of paper, identify the agencies that might be called or might be involved in this incident.

5.) Based upon the video, how long will you be operating at this event and what does that mean for additional resources that might have to be called in?

If you do not have an industrial facility such as this in your area do you have one in the mutual aid area? How much do you know about it in advance? Have you trained with mutual aid in a field exercise or even a tabletop drill?

Think about, today might be the day to plan and review basic Haz mat concepts.

Pete Lamb @ Copyright 2012
For information contact pete@petelamb.com