Three Hazmat Lessons from a Semi Chemical Spill A recent hazmat incident in Pennsylvania provides both response and training lessons for first on scene and hazmat teams. In mid-May, a tractor-trailer hauling what was reported to be swimming pool chemicals along a two-lane road cutting through the Pocono Mountains in Monroe County overturned before 10 a.m. Regional hazmat teams were sent to aid […] Written by Phil Ambrose May 26, 2022May 26, 2022
N.Y. Hazmat Call can be Fire Training Template In Portland, New York, 10 firefighters were recently transported from a working house fire due to exposure to unknown fumes. Three were treated with Naloxone; all were released from the hospital with no serious illness or injury. That’s clearly good news. What’s so unsettling is that no one really knows what sickened the 10 firefighters […] Written by Phil Ambrose May 17, 2022May 19, 2022
Hazmat Teams Must Plan for Political Emergencies Preparing for a range of unknown or unlikely hazmat threats is no small task. Yet, that kind of thinking and planning is necessary to ensure the team is ready when the unexpected occurs. The same is true for those unlikely threats to the very survival of the hazmat team. As we saw in the Great […] Written by Phil Ambrose May 5, 2022May 5, 2022
Lessons from 2 Water Plant Hazmat Incidents The words “hazmat” and “water supply” are some we hope to never see combined. Yet whether by accident or design, poisoning the watering hole has always been a threat. In Bedford, Va., two firefighters and two employees were sent to the hospital for exposure to chlorine — 12 others were treated on scene. According to […] Written by Phil Ambrose April 26, 2022April 28, 2022
Study Looks to Predict Chemical, Airborne Threat Movement Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory is part of a large study looking to better understand how airborne particles and gasses move and at what concentration they can be detected. The aim is to give emergency management planners, including hazmat officials, better predictive tools. Multiple agencies with 175 personnel, led by Lincoln Laboratory, collected safe […] Written by Phil Ambrose April 15, 2022April 15, 2022
Spate of Fuel Storage Fires Prompts Hazmat Review With a spike in oil tank fires making the news in recent weeks, it is worth having a closer look at what those mean for hazmat teams. Last week a fuel depot just over the Ukrainian border in Belgorod, Russia came under attack from what Russian officials say were missiles fired from Ukrainian helicopters. According […] Written by Phil Ambrose April 7, 2022April 7, 2022
Illegal Lithium Battery Transport Burn Just Before Going to Sea Source: U.S. Coast Guard The U.S. Coast Guard is warning about the hazards of transporting discarded lithium batteries after a container illegally loaded them caught fire while en route to the Port of Virginia, where it was set to be loaded onto a ship. Thankfully the container was not loaded on a ship at the […] Written by Phil Ambrose March 24, 2022March 24, 2022
Ukraine: Threats Prompt Focus on Hazmat Response to Chemical Weapons With all the horrible news coming out of Ukraine, it is hard to isolate what’s most unsettling. But the potential use of chemical weapons is right up at the top, and an issue of interest to us in the hazmat community. In Ukraine, some of the chemical weapons talk is fueled by baseless reports in […] Written by Phil Ambrose March 18, 2022March 18, 2022
Hazmat Reminders from a Recent Biofuel Plant Fire With so much recent focus on renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar, it is forgivable if you forgot about the formidable biofuel infrastructure we already have in place. According to U.S. Energy Information Administration data, there were 278 biofuel-producing plants in the United States in January 2021. Those plants have a combined […] Written by Phil Ambrose March 10, 2022March 10, 2022