Baltimore City Fire Case Study

Incident Chronology. At approximately 2:39 AM Freight Train 192 traveling at a speed of 47 mph crashed into parked train P22 causing a dangerous amount of chlorine gas to be release into the atmosphere. Fortunately, the engineers on site at the time of the accidents were not harm from the crash. Nonetheless, the magnitude of the crash alerted local residents who immediately called 911 approximately one minute after the crash. Some of the 911 calls received by the Aiken police department recorded a concerned resident saying “bleach gas smell and smoke on the ground” (A.E. Dunning, J Oswalt, 2005, pg. 130). Upon receiving several calls, the town’s emergency departments were on route minutes after being notified. However, when the fire chief heard

For example, if there is a chemical spillage, the Fire Service will tackle the incident, and then be able to de-brief and work on a strategy for any similar future incident.

One man saw the fire and tried to get someone to use the fire box to get the fire department to send a fire truck. Sadly he had no such luck in notifying them. Fire boxes were boxes located on the street corner for people to use to alert the closest fire department, because telephones were not commonly available at that time. The other man just insisted that a fire truck had probably already been called and was on its way. The fire was so destructive because there were many mistakes and dangerous

At 2215 hrs, on November 28, 1942, Fire Alarm Headquarters from Box 1514, situated at Stuart and Carver streets, received an alarm. When the responding apparatus arrived they found a small car fire at the corner of Stuart Street and Broadway. After the fire was extinguished the firefighters were about to return to quarters when their attention was called to smoke emanating from the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub a few doors away. Upon their arrival at the entrance of the Broadway lounge on Broadway they encountered numerous people leaving the premises admidst the cries of “fire”. The chief in charge immediately ordered that a third alarm be sounded from Alarm Box 1521 which the alarm was received by fire alarm headquarters at 2223 hrs. A

During that time, Chicago had recently renovated it’s fire alarm making it it’s best out of the nation. However, in the past, the fire department

There were multiple letters left around the scene of the train derailment and in the letters there was specific events noted such as the Waco, TX event where a few people burned alive inside a building, and then it mentions the Ruby Ridge ID, incident and lastly a local event where a Phoenix police officer choked a man to death (Kiefer, 1998). This information led the FBI investigators to believe the perpetrators of this event had knowledge of how fires work, had some law enforcement experience, and a working knowledge of how rail safety systems worked (Kiefer, 1998). The FBI began the search for suspects by looking at militias, but they quickly dismissed the idea as a possible distraction to draw attention away from the real perpetrators (Kiefer, 1998). The FBI subsequently eliminated other groups of people such as disgruntled railroad workers or salvage workers (Kiefer, 1998). The primary suspects in the eyes of the FBI are firefighters and first responders to the incident (Kiefer, 1998). The reasoning behind this is hero syndrome where someone creates a dangerous or criminal situation so that they then can be the “hero” in that situation and gain fame or recognition for their response (Helmig, 2014). The first responder that by name was shown a good bit of attention from the FBI is Steve Hurley (Kiefer, 1998). Hurley was admired by co-workers and his former Tonopah fire chief said that he was one of the best emergency medical technicians he had ever seen (Kiefer, 1998). The reason that Hurley came up on the radar of the FBI is because he had a light criminal history and past employment issues with one of his previous fire chiefs saying that he was an idiot and that he was a psychopath (Kiefer, 1998). There were other suspects the FBI was looking at that only came to public view when a secretary at the FBI

At 2215 hrs, on November 28, 1942, Fire Alarm Headquarters from Box 1514, situated at Stuart and Carver streets, received an alarm. When the responding apparatus arrived they found a small car fire at the corner of Stuart Street and Broadway. After the fire was extinguished the firefighters were about to return to quarters when their attention was called to smoke emanating from the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub a few doors away. Upon their arrival at the entrance of the Broadway lounge on Broadway they encountered numerous people leaving the premises admidst the cries of "fire". The chief in charge immediately ordered that a third alarm be sounded from Alarm Box 1521 which the alarm was received by fire alarm headquarters at 2223 hrs. A

Sheriff's deputies responded, secured the scene, and contacted the bomb squad for assistance. Bomb squad techs and an investigator from the Maine State Fire Marshal's Office responded to the scene.

I agree the delayed response was definitely and issue during the Baltimore tunnel fires. The information whether the train was carrying corrosive or explosive material should om a train should have been readily available to the fire department. All trains that are carrying any hazardous material are required to be labeled or placarded and the carriers are required to have the information of what they are carrying and the pick location and originate should easy to obtain. As you stated the delayed response caused more issue than resolution.

In the early morning of November 11, 2013, Jake McCarthy was heading to work at about 06:00AM as he does most mornings working for the postal service. As he left, he noticed a car speed away from the community center across the street. At this time, he noticed smoke coming from the community center. Jake called 911 to notified the fire department.

In order to mitigate and/or avoid both these risks and outcomes, agencies from the federal to the local level have developed specific techniques and procedures to combat these threats. For example, the hazardous material identification system is a very useful product that first responders can utilize when responding to a terrorist event. Both chemical and biological hazards are risks that first responders may face when responding to a terrorist event. The use of chemical agents by a terrorist group or organization is deliberately orchestrated to inflict serious harm, death, or to incapacitate masses through physiological effects (FEMA, 2002, p.10). If chemical terrorism is used against the U.S., first responders will be at elevated risk of secondary contamination.

It was revealed during the investigation that despite pressure from fire marshals to install sprinklers during the hotel's construction, hotel executives fought the idea. The investigators found that one Clark County building official misinterpreted the code so the hotel was not forced to have sprinklers in the casino, or in the restaurant where the fire started. With sprinklers, or smoke detectors, the fire would have been well contained before escalating to huge explosions. But it must be noted that the lack of sprinklers and smoke detectors were not the only reason that the fire spread so quickly. The fire alarms also did not sound because they had to be pulled manually and nobody was present at the restaurant to do

Events which interfere with the normal operations of Hennepin Technical College (HTC) are unavoidable. The purpose of this document is to explain the actions, roles, and responsibilities that are to be taken by individuals and departments in the event of a spill or release of a hazardous chemical or waste. (Homeland Security, 2011)

The public health emergency that I chose to discuss for this assignment is Philadelphia Amtrak derailment. On May 12, 2015, Amtrak Northeast Regional train from Washington, D.C. bound for New York City derailed and crashed on the Northeast Corridor in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA. Over 200 were injured. 11 critically and 8 were killed out of 238 passengers and 5 crew. The train was traveling at 102 mph in a 50 mph zone of curved tracks when it derailed. Some of the passengers had to be extricated from the crashed cars. Many of the passengers and local residents helped first responders during the rescue operation. Five local hospitals treated the injured. The derailment disrupted train service for several days.

When the Savannah Fire department is paged for a call they all run to get suited up for the call. If they happen to be at a station where a tiller truck (ladder truck) is used, then 2 people have to drive it. There is a person driving in the front of the truck and one in the back basically because the truck is so long. The whole operation requires a great deal of teamwork. If the person in the back is turning left and the one in the front is turning right then they will likely have an accident or at the very least not go the correct direction. Communication is vital in any relationship especially the one I was just referring to. While at school my teacher tells me how and why he wants an assignment done, when I am at work I instruct my officers to go to certain locations and parents in homes tell their children to clean up after themselves.