Emergency Response

It has been reported that OSHA issued a citation to a Railroad ( a subsidiary of one of the six Class 1 RR’s) after an employee experienced respiratory distress when they were told to wear a self-contained breathing apparatus during the process of disconnecting train cars at the derailment site. The employee had not been…...

State Coordinators distribute ERGs ONLY to their State’s public response organizations. If you are not a public responder, click here for a list of commercial suppliers of the ERG2024. CLICK HERE… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

Substitute Senate Bill 5812 (SSB 5812) called for the WSP to “conduct a study of electric vehicle fires reviewing the following: impacts to the environment and proximate residential areas and health impacts to responding firefighters; best practices for fire response; and best practices regarding cleanup and disposal efforts.” This legislative direction is an important complement…...

PPE is our LAST LINE of defense, and this means we better have the BEST PPE available and be trained in its care, use, donning/doffing, and limitations. Just because it’s last in the Hierarchy of Controls does not mean we can overlook its significance…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View...

A soap and detergent manufacturer faces $161,310 in federal penalties after an OSHA investigation of a chemical gas release that sent a dozen workers to the hospital in July 2024. OSHA initiated an inspection on July 11 after being notified by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the facility’s operator about an incident involving a…...

This was the headline in our local news after a chemical company failed to participate in a community meeting after their product leaked from a railcar sitting in a railyard about 4 miles from the plant. It took several days to get folks back into their homes; as you can imagine, they were unhappy. However,…...

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SAD! AED flagged for expired parts before HISD student’s death, per yearly inspection But we see it more often than not. A company invests in AEDs and then does not maintain them, leading to a false sense of safety. We usually get pushback when we write them up in audits, as the business will claim…...

There has been a lot of armchair quarterbacking regarding the decision to Vent & Burn the VC railcars in East Palestine, OH. My personal and professional opinion, knowing what I knew at the time, was that V&B was the correct decision. These decisions are always challenging to make, but failing to perform V&B on these…...

I have written extensively about pressurized containers in the fire safety arena catastrophically failing and leading to injuries. But this event is new to me. I have no idea what “detonators” are used for in a fire protection system; can anyone who does this for a living explain? UPDATE: Many THANKS to everyone for sending…...

Under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the statutory authority to set phase-out dates for ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and to evaluate potential risks posed by proposed ODS substitutes. Under the terms of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, EPA promulgated regulations to phase…...

We have all seen the social media posts of these high-expansion foam systems discharging, and we watch in amazement at their efficiency in filling an airplane hanger. Some of these videos are from “system testing,” and some are from accidental discharges. But someone always asks the question: Could someone survive inside the foam? Here is…...