Area fire departments learn to handle local crude-by-rail disaster

Editor’s note: Second of two parts. Read part one by CLICKING HERE.

Several Solano County fire departments are better prepared to handle a crude-by-rail accident, or any other petrochemical emergency, after a week of training at Valero Benicia Refinery.

Fifty of Valero’s own firefighters joined 90 municipal firefighters from Benicia, Cordelia, Dixon, Fairfield, Vacaville and Vallejo, as well as Travis Air Force Base, and 20 members of the Solano County Hazardous Materials (Hazmat) Team at the five-day session that began Oct. 20.

As with fire departments across the country, much of what was leaned was informed by the disaster that befell the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada on July 6, 2013, Valero Chief Joe Bateman said.

That community, which he compared to Lake Tahoe, “only smaller,” and its volunteer firefighters were overwhelmed and undertrained for the calamity that began when a train was left unattended — something Valero has promised wouldn’t happen should it get Benicia’s permission to bring in crude oil by trains.

Bateman and Howe said Eric Jacques, superintendent of security and operations at Valero’s Jean Gaulin Refinery in Levis, another city in Quebec, saw the explosion on televised news.

In what they said was a seldom-told sequence of events, Jacques voluntarily redirected an 8,000-gallon tanker filled with fire suppression foam, a concentrate that is combined with water and sprayed through hoses, from the refinery to battle the resulting explosion.

A Canadian government account, “Report and Recommendations of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods and General Policy Advisory Council Emergency Response Assistance Plan Working Group Relating to Class 3 Flammable Liquids,” published Jan. 31, 2014, notes that “firefighting foam was brought in from the refinery to control remaining fires and suppress vapors from the unburned crude.”
Jacques “brought the resources in and put out the fires,” Howe said.

“The refinery fire chief and his assistant received the flag of the City of Lac-Megantic during an official ceremony in the presence of the Quebec Prime Minister and the General Governor of Canada in honor of their service following the fatal derailment of a crude train in 2013,” said Veronique Roy, director of environmental, health and safety at the Jean Gaulin Refinery.

Unlike the firefighting foams used in the past, the foam currently used by Valero, Benicia and other departments has a long shelf life, and Bateman said the manufacturer has told Valero its foam is good for the next 15 to 20 years.

He disagreed with those who have contended crude oil fires can’t be extinguished. “That’s a complete fabrication.”

And for those who have said foam doesn’t put out fires, Benicia fire Chief Jim Lydon said, “That’s exactly what we would use.”

It was used on the Big O Tire fire in 2007 in Benicia, Bateman said — about 900 gallons of Valero’s supply. It cost $35 a gallon, “but nobody got a bill.”

“We’re the free entity for the city,” Bateman said, explaining that when his department sends its units to fight a fire or vacuum foam, “we don’t charge the city.”

While much public focus recently has been on rail transport of Bakken crude or the light sweet crude blended with heavier Canadian tar sands oil into Bay Area’s refineries, Bateman said the refineries’ and other agencies’ firefighters train to battle other petrochemical and hazardous materials fires and spills, too.

Trains and trucks already carry such chemicals as ammonia, butane, liquid petroleum and chlorine packaged under pressure throughout the Bay Area, he said — and butane, propane and coke products already are transported by rail in Benicia. In fact, Bateman said, if in an emergency he “rolls up on a rail car, I’d prefer it is a crude oil instead of a butane or propane issue. They catch fire more quickly.”

Lydon explained that the chemical expanding as it leaks from a pressurized rail car or other container can react “significantly” with an ignition source.

On the other hand, some chemicals, like chlorine, aren’t flammable but toxic, Lydon said. “Different chemicals have different issues,” he said.

And those chemicals travel up and down the highways as well as streets around and in Benicia every day without restrictions, he said.

“Nothing says you won’t have an event with a tanker truck on any highway and gas station,” he said.

To prepare for those emergencies, Benicia has had its own drills, such as the cooperative effort among the Benicia Emergency Response Team, Benicia Fire Department, Valero and other organizations in a drill that simulated a chlorine leak at the city’s water treatment plant.

That was “an opportunity to train people to shelter in place,” said Sue Fisher Jones, Valero public affairs manager. “It was a good model.”

Lydon said he and one of his division chiefs have trained in Colorado with the Department of Transportation in handling multiple transportation emergencies. Those sessions involved tanker trucks, delivery trucks and large-scale emergencies, including train derailments.

He said he will be sending other command staff members from the department to a three-day seminar that focuses on crude-by-rail emergencies. More will be heading to Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, next month for additional training, not only in firefighting but also in handling hazardous materials, Lydon said, adding with pride that three members of his department are technicians on Solano County’s Hazmat team.

Valero also has a Hazmat team on duty, and Bateman said his department has 34 emergency medical technicians, as well as a team trained to perform rescues in unusual situations. He said he gets frustrated when he hears people say Benicia isn’t prepared for emergencies.

Lydon said his department has similar capabilities. “We’re an all-risk agency, and that’s a key. If it doesn’t require a gun, the fire department shows up.”

Bateman said he and the refinery have been reaching out to area fire departments. “I have been at the Solano County Fire Chief’s meeting,” he said. He’s also spoken to those in Placer County and representatives of the California Office of Emergency Services.

“I’ve reached out from West Sacramento to Benicia, asking for their concerns. We’ve offered training,” he said.

Chris Howe, director of health, safety, environment and government affairs at the refinery, acknowledged public concerns about the environmental impacts of a spill, should Valero’s Crude-by-Rail Project be approved.

But he noted that such potential dangers already exist. In 2002, a Kinder Morgan pipeline caused a diesel spill in Suisun Marsh; the chemical was cleaned up, and a response team handled its restoration. “The marsh survived,” he said.

California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has an Office of Spill Prevention and Response that has mitigation plans in place, Lydon said.

The office’s website, www.dfg.ca.gov/ospr, allows those visiting to report or learn about spills, as well as learn about drills and contingency plans. The office has been getting 6.5 cents a barrel for oil brought in by ship, Lydon said. With the increase in rail traffic, the most recent state legislative session has extended the charge to barrels of oil brought in by rail, and the same charge also applies to pipelines, he said.

While the money has been used to buy spill boats, Lydon said the agency also is being urged to buy more equipment to address inland spills.

The fire chiefs and Howe acknowledged residents’ concerns about liability in case of spills or explosions, particularly if Valero is successful in its request for a use permit to extend Union Pacific rails into its property so crude could be delivered by train.

But Union Pacific representatives already have said at public meetings that their company would pick up the tab, Howe said.

Valero’s proposal, he added, is to have crude oil delivered in rail cars that exceed current construction standards.

“Our expectation is the product would be properly packaged, and that the railroad would accept things properly packaged,” he said.