EMERGENCY PERSONNEL APPROACH SPILLS `VERY CAUTIOUSLY'

Firefighters have a simple rule when dealing with hazardous material spills -- fools rush in.

"If we're responding to an unknown chemical we're going to approach very cautiously," said Mark Hasheider, a battalion chief with the Cape Girardeau Fire Department. "What we would be trying to do is approach upwind and uphill if at all possible.

"Our object is to stay out of the chemical, stay out of the vapor, the spill itself or any fumes or smoke."

Hasheider said firefighters do not rush blindly into a situation. The first step in responding to a hazardous material spill is to establish a perimeter that will not be crossed unless a rescue worker is properly equipped for the material involved.

"We are not going to do any good if we go in and are contaminated or exposed to this chemical," he said. "People who are already in that area, we're going to try to move them out."

A majority of the hazardous material spills Cape Girardeau emergency workers respond to are on the highway. They are able to tell fairly quickly what material they are dealing with because of a placard that is required on all vehicles, railroad cars, barges and planes that are transporting hazardous items.

"As emergency responders, that's what they're going to be looking for," Hasheider said.

The classification of hazardous material spills has changed over the years, Hasheider said. Major automobile accidents that spill oil, transmission fluid, gasoline or antifreeze on the road are treated as hazardous material sites.

The method of dealing with these products has changed as well. "It used to be, five, 10, 15 years ago, it was considered appropriate to wash gasoline and oil into the sewers or ditches. That is no longer an acceptible practice, Hasheider said.

Because they present an environmental hazard, the liquids are soaked up and disposed of properly, he said.

Hasheider said these procedures have developed over the last 30 years or so as people's awareness of the effects of chemicals on their health and the environment increased.

Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Dan White attended the funeral of three Arkansas firefighters killed last week while fighting a fire in a chemical packaging plant in West Helena, Ark. White, who moved to Cape Girardeau from Arkansas, was acquainted with two of the men and many of their co-workers.

White said the men were killed as they were preparing to enter a structure to inspect a smoldering fire. He said they were told there was no explosion hazard from the burning chemical.

"The primary chemical was called azinphos methyl, which is some kind of insecticide-pesticide," he said. "As they moved to go in, that's when the explosion occurred and a concrete block wall blew out and fell on them."

The three men were crushed and the wall broke the shoulder and pelvis of a fourth firefighter.

"A fifth firefighter went up and pulled the injured party out of the way," White said. "He wanted to go back in and get the other three. The other firefighters had to hold him back. He's having some emotional problems over that. He was right there and couldn't get to them."

White said emergency response workers rely on the company representatives to supply them with information when they arrive at the scene of an industrial fire. Sometimes that information is incomplete.

"We can go into any fire, anywhere, that may have something that goes boom and we can't see what we're getting into," he said. "Anytime we run on a hazardous material incident we don't just rush in."

Union Pacific is the nation's largest rail carrier of hazardous material, according to information supplied by the company. The number of shipments of hazardous material transported by Union Pacific has grown from 352,677 shipments in 1993 to 439,796 in 1996.

In 1993, Union Pacific had six accident-related releases, either a spill, leak or venting of hazardous materials, and 357 non-accident releases. In 1996, Union Pacific had 346 non-accident releases and five derailments that led to a total of five releases.

The company also reported that in 1996 safety crews responded to 353 emergencies related to hazardous materials besides the releases mentioned above. That included:

-- 131 releases of non-hazardous materials

-- 111 diesel fuel spills

-- 52 responses with no release of hazardous materials

-- 37 environmental clean-ups with no hazardous materials involved

-- 22 derailments involving hazardous materials with no release

"Any transportation industry hopefully learns through mistakes that happen," Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said.

The design of tanker cars has changed through the years as a result of accident-related releases, Davis said. Tanker cars are reinforced, sometimes with three-quarter-inch steel inner shells surrounded by an outer metal skin. Couplers have been designed to stay joined in a derailment to prevent pieces from puncturing the tankers, he said.

Tracks are welded together now instead of simply joined. Monitors measure wheel temperatures as trains move over the tracks. These innovations are meant to reduce the number of derailments, Davis said.

Even with these advances, tanker cars will release. An example was a Burlington Northern Railroad train that derailed in April near Lone Star Industries, spilling diesel fuel and a small amount of phosphoric acid.

"Anytime you put a tank car in a condition other than where it should be, you know upright, there are all kinds of things that could happen," Davis said.

The Coast Guard has a response team it can mobilize in case of a spill if the company that owns a leaking barge is not willing or prepared to handle the emergency. "But we rarely have to step in," said Billy Powell, chief environmental engineer for the U.S. Coast Guard in Paducah, Ky.

Oil spill cleanup contractors operate in Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., Sikeston, St. Louis and Paducah. They are hired by barge owners who are responsible for the cost of the reparation.