Emporia Firefighters are headed to Greensburg to handle Hazmat
By Bobbi Mlynar
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Three Emporia firefighters left today for Greensburg, where they will relieve other emergency workers who have completed assignments there.
On Tuesday, Capt. Steve Kuhlmann was preparing equipment that would be needed for their stay. The team will be in charge of hazardous materials.
“We’re trying to take what’s absolutely most necessary,” Kuhlmann said. “There’s no equipment out there.
Everything that we believe we’ll need for the four days to take care of any hazmat, we’ll have to take with us.”
The firefighters will meet with the crew they are relieving and get a debriefing on the situation.
The team took the department’s full hazmat trailer with them. They have been assigned to monitor leaks.
“We know for sure that we have an anhydrous ammonia facility that is leaking and we have a propane facility that has a leak in it,” Kuhlmann said. “We will just monitor those.”
The team also will work with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Environmental Protection Agency.
“As (the rescue teams) are working through debris, they’re obviously going to dig into a lot of household hazardous waste,” he said.
Pesticides, herbicides, flammable materials and other hazardous waste will be removed by the team, identified and sorted and taken to a central location for disposal.
The local team also is taking structural gear in case they are needed for firefighting.
“I’m confident that if something arises and we’re not busy with a hazmat we would certainly help,” Kuhlmann said.
Other members of the team are Bill Harmon and Ron Ewing.
The men will return to Emporia about midnight Saturday and will report back for shift work at the fire department when they arrive.