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Manufacturer Assist in Train Fire in Baltimore City
By Shelli Cosmides
On Wednesday, the 18th of July, a 60-car freight train carrying eight hazardous material tankers derailed and caught fire in the middle of the Howard Street Tunnel that runs underneath Baltimore City. Some of the tankers were carrying hydrochloric acid, used to make a variety of household products, others were carrying paper products and plywood. A burst seam on one of the tankers leaked hydrochloric acid at a rate of 50 liters/minute letting 8,000 to 10,000 liters of hydrochloric acid splash onto the ground over one kilometer from either entrance of the inside of the century-old tunnel.
Hydrochloric acid is extremely corrosive with any material it comes into contact with and can cause severe burns to all body tissue. Concentrated solutions cause deep ulcers and discolored skin. If inhaled, it could be fatal or may cause lung damage. Inhalation of hydrochloric acid vapors can cause coughing, choking, inflammation of the nose, throat, and upper respiratory tract; and in severe cases cause pulmonary edema, circulatory failure, and death. Because of these deadly fumes being generated in a confined atmosphere like that of the tunnel, it was imperative for fire fighters to act quickly and promptly to remove the cars from inside the tunnel and to put out the extremely hot fire inside.
Jeff Fleming (Regional Sales Manager for Draeger Safety who supplied the Baltimore City's Rescue with the rescue equipment) was called by Doug Campbell (Senior Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus Technician). They discussed the incident. Jeff used the internal Emergency Procedure Manual which helped them devise a plan of action.
In sets of three, firefighters wearing SCBA's were going into the tunnel, following a path of light from a nearby truck's headlights. Their biggest concern was entering the dark unknown atmosphere with a limited air supply. Baltimore City Mayor Martin O'Malley said, "There's some pretty nasty stuff in there, I think about how lucky we are to have brave firefighters who grab a hose and walk into a tunnel with smoke
billowing out of it, not knowing how far they'll get before there might be an explosion."
Firefighters were working from both ends of the tunnel and discovered that the standard open circuit 30 and even 60- minute SCBA units were ineffective. They didn't offer enough duration to both fight the fire and to pull the toxic box cars out of the tunnel. The fire was intensely hot and they were not only fighting the fire but also the chemicals. Although the fire could be controlled, the atmosphere was highly dangerous because of all the gases and smoke coming from the tunnel which was basically enclosed and in a confided space.
"On one end of the tunnel, the Baltimore City Firefighters had set up huge fans, like airplane fans, and had firefighter crews doing ventilation and attack, working to put out the fire, which is called the Camden yards end. As they were putting the fire out, they would move the fans forward and continue to advance into the tunnel', Jeff said. For this type of work, the firefighters were wearing the Airboss Evolution SCBA's and working with the portable air cart. "Once they got close enough to the fire, they set up the air cart to run up to 300 feet of air-hose so they could also be on supplied air to do maintenance work to fight the fire. It gave then the mobility to continue moving forward.', said Jeff. On the other end of the tunnel, another crew going in tried to recover the cars, but the smoke from the fan was blowing all the toxic gases and fumes directly into the faces of the recovery personnel, so they had no breathable atmosphere. It was deadly. The firefighters on this end, called the Mount Royal end, were riding train engines into the tunnel; but, by the time they got in to get the trains out, they were having to get back out because their whistles were going off. The BG-4 was a better choice for this type of scenario.
BG's were needed to properly assess the actual situation inside the tunnel. A call was placed to the fire chiefs at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., who owns an additional 12 units of the desperately needed BG's. Both Chief Martin and Chief Cooper, along with two emergency rescue/service technicians brought their haz-mat truck along with all twelve of the BG-4's. Once they arrived, a BG-4 command control center was established in a nearby old train station.
All firefighters who weren't trained on the BG's were given a crash course and sent out to fight the blaze. In all, approximately 120 people were given this training including the CSX personnel, according to Jeff. As each team returned, the BG units were cleaned, disinfected, assembled, reassembled and tested with RZ 25 tester, personally by either Harry or Jeff. This was continually done from 3:00 PM Friday until 7:30 AM Saturday. It was critical that the units were tested and assembled properly, because one mistake could have made a difference between life and death.
Using the BG's and the FireOpTIC Thermal-imaging Camera, firefighters were able to identify where the train was located within the tunnel and find hot spots that needed to be addressed. While all this was going on inside and outside the tunnel, hazmat personnel were taking gas measurements at manholes in various locations above the tunnel. Baltimore's emergency personnel were using both the Chip Measurement System, (CMS), an electronic on-the-spot gas detection instrument able to provide digital readouts of hazardous gas concentration; as well as using Tubes to look for carbon monoxide and hydrochloric acid, as these were their main toxic concerns. Testing continued around the clock because of the deadly nature of both carbon monoxide and hydrochloric acid and the gas detection draws were rotated every 8 hours. For testing the gases inside the tunnel, firefighters wore MiniWarn 4-gas instruments. They were testing for combustibles, oxygen and carbon monoxide while pulling the freight trains out of the tunnel.
When technology and team work come together insurmountable tasks can be accomplished.
For more information on the BG-4s and Gas detection instruments please contact Shelli Cosmides at shelli.cosmides@draeger.com
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