Lessons Learned From Chemical Fire Become Department Casebook

A Los Angeles City Fire Department evaluation of a spectacular Sun Valley chemical company fire has concluded that too many risks were taken in fighting the blaze, prompting the department to modify its procedures for handling hazardous material emergencies, fire officials said.

The department’s analysis of the April 14 blaze at Research Organic and Inorganic Chemical Co. determined that firefighters, police and civilians were allowed too close to a potentially dangerous area; that firefighters were positioned in the path of possibly toxic smoke and that police officers were not aware of the severity of the fire.

The chemical fire at 9068 De Garmo Ave. has become a case study for the department, underscoring weaknesses in hazardous material firefighting practices that officials said the department has been correcting.

“If we had another De Garmo fire, you’re not going to see a lot of the same things happening,” said Assistant Chief Jack Bennett. “We were lucky in that fire. Risks go along with this business, but someone was watching over us that day.

“You are going to see a lot tighter perimeter controls as a result of this,” Bennett said. “A lot more freeways are going to be closed down when there’s a spill. First responding officers are going to be taking a much more cautious approach.”

56 Sent to Hospitals

Although no one apparently suffered major injuries at the fire, fumes from scores of burning poisonous chemicals sent 56 people to the hospital, including 52 firefighters and three police officers. Many complained of nausea, respiratory difficulties and dizziness, a department spokesman said. Two police officers remain off duty.

The city firefighters’ union contends that the department should take the initiative for follow-up medical examination for firefighters, who may not realize what potentially toxic materials they have been exposed to. Bennett said the department’s position is that, after initial treatment, it is a firefighter’s responsibility to notify his superiors if he believes he needs more care. He also said captains and battalion chiefs are required to ask those under their command about possible health problems that could be related to exposure during a fire.

At the union’s request, a survey will be conducted by the Hazard Evaluations and Technical Assistance Branch of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to identify the possible long-term effects of the toxins on firefighters in the Sun Valley blazes who were exposed to them.

“This fire is a grave concern to us,” said Andrew Kuljis, president of the United Fire Fighters of Los Angeles City. “We see chemical exposures as the single and largest threat to a firefighter’s well being.”

One of the biggest problems posed by industrial fires is that there is no immediate way to determine the amount of hazardous material contained inside a building, officials said.

When the first responding fire officer arrived at the De Garmo fire, one of his primary information sources was a placard on the front door of the building indicating that the firm handled chemicals of the most hazardous nature, some of them water reactive. The placards, which are required by law, give no indication of the amounts of chemicals inside.

“It could be a two-quart jar or 55-gallon drums,” Bennett said.

Because of the placard, firefighters were positioned around the building, attacking the fire from the outside, mainly from ladders, Bennett said.

Under the more conservative policies that will be enforced as a result of that fire, firefighters will battle such blazes only on the side of a building least affected by fire and smoke.

Bennett said questions were raised by officials as to whether water should have been used in fighting the fire in light of placards indicating that the chemicals inside would react with water.

“It’s easy to fight the fire the day after,” Bennett said. “But the outcome may have been worse if we had not used water. It’s a judgment call, the calculated risk we must take.”

As a result of the De Garmo fire, he said, the department chiefs will implement procedural changes that will enforce stricter safety zones surrounding the scenes of an emergency, better communication with police and a closer examination of when run-off water from storm drain systems should be dammed.

The changes spurred by the Sun Valley fire coincide with the department’s revamping of its procedures in dealing with hazardous materials.

Since 1982, the department has introduced three hazardous material squads, equipped with special entry suits and chemical detection devices. A mobile lab is available on a 24-hour call to help identify hazards.

Committee Formed

Donald Manning, the department’s chief engineer and general manager, ordered the formation last January of a hazardous materials committee, headed by Bennett, to create management plans, training programs and decontamination procedures for chemical emergencies.

Perhaps the most important tools used by firefighters are fire inspection records and a 20-year-old system of building inventories that contain information on construction, ventilation and hazardous materials stored inside major structures in each station’s district.

The inventories, compiled in bulky black binders, are updated only once a year, however, so information about chemical storage may be obsolete when it is needed.

Both Fire Department and union officials are backing a proposal by City Councilman Howard Finn that would create a multimillion-dollar computerized inventory of hazardous industrial chemicals.

The proposed ordinance, which the council voted three weeks ago to send to the Finance Committee and city attorney for study, would require companies that possess hazardous chemicals to register the type and amount with the city on a continuing basis, creating a system to provide firefighters with immediate warnings of such contents in a burning building.

Even if the proposed computer system is approved, Bennett said, perhaps the most important factor in the department’s new hazardous materials program will be training firefighters to use a more conservative approach when confronted with a chemical fire.

“This is a department that prides itself in aggressively fighting fires. We train guys to react to a stimulus like an alarm and rush into burning buildings,” Bennett said. “Now we are going to start saying, ‘Whoa, slow down, take your time.’ ”