Firefighters, Other Emergency Services Personnel Conduct Hazmat Drill In Middletown

With the large train derailment and chemical spill in Ohio and the smaller local spill in the Delaware River fresh on their minds, more than 60 volunteer and paid firefighters whose service area includes Middletown Township went through an extensive hazardous materials drill last Thursday night on the property of the former Oliver Heckman Elementary School in the municipality.

“This is the second part of our hazardous materials operation refresher,” explained State Sen. and Langhorne-Middletown Fire Company Chief Frank Farry. “We had the classroom part last week and tonight is the practical exercise.”

The drill involved a tractor trailer truck, lent to the exercise by Rob’s Commerical Hauling & Transport, leaking a chemical. Participants in the drill first staged at the Langhorne-Middletown station in Langhorne Borough and then responded to what was first reported as a “minor incident, a smell near the Oliver Heckman School,” Farry explained.

Once on the scene, firefighters went through the steps necessary to determine the full nature of the incident, including reading a placard on the side of the tractor trailer that showed what kind of chemical it was carrying. Additional units began responding as necessary.

All elements of the drill were designed to simulate the real thing as much as possible, Farry noted, including the set-up of a decontamination tent where during a real incident, personnel could have washed off any chemicals that might have gotten on them. Participating in the exercise were volunteer firefighters from the Langhorne-Middletown, William Penn, Penndel and Parkland fire companies; Bucks County Emergency Services; paid Middletown firefighters, fire police from the various companies and Middletown police.

Middletown officers and fire police blocked off nearby streets so motorists couldn’t get too close, as would happen in a real incident. A large mobile command center from Bucks County Emergency Services, called Bucks One, was also at the drill to simulate the kind of communication and other logistics that would occur.

Hazmat incidents can happen anywhere, anytime and it’s critical that local first responders be prepared to deal with them, Farry said.

“This was planned well before the incident in Ohio,” he explained. “The hazmat refresher is an annual thing, but usually only one or two of the departments take part. This year it was all four (that serve Middletown and the surrounding area). I think it’s a great exercise for our teamwork, including with the career firefighters and the new career chief in Middletown (Mark Antozzeski). We’re really trying to work together more, which is a good thing for our community and a good thing for our members.

“There is so much that goes on with hazmat. There are a lot of chemicals moving through our area both by rail and by road. We can encounter this at any point in time. About 10 years ago, we had a small motor vehicle accident. The guy involved was an exterminator, and he got rear ended and his pesticides shot all around the car making it a hazmat incident. So, it’s one of those things that could happen anytime, even with a minor car accident.”

Penndel Fire Company member, county hazmat instructor and Dow Chemical employee Dave Harris conducted the classroom instruction and helped guide Thursday night’s drill.

“There’s obviously a lot of concern right now after what happened in Ohio,” he said. “In the Northeast corridor, between rail and road, a lot of chemicals are being transported. This exercise tonight gives them the opportunity to put everything we talked about last week (during classroom instruction) into an action plan, and carry everything out.”

Joe Hogan, who succeeded Farry as state representative for the 142nd Legislative District, stopped by to observe the drill and said he found it very educational.

“I’ve been hearing a lot from constituents about environmental hazards and what plans are in place to handle them,” he said. “How is emergency management in Bucks County prepared to handle these issues? Just yesterday, in a 55-plus community, they raised these same concerns.

“I thought it would be worthwhile to come out and observe with my own eyes how the volunteer and professional services are able to respond to these types of incidents, and also find out what they need to be more successful in the future.”

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