Garland, Texas - Chemical Plant Fire - 11/16/2012

[peterose313 345]

Date: 11/16/2012

Time: Approx 1330 hours CST - on going

Location: 3101 Wood Drive x S. Jupiter Road Garland, Texas

Frequency: Garland Police and Fire (Fire Talkgroups Dispatch 595 / OPS-1 656 / OPS-2 688 / OPS-3 720 / EMS-1 944. Police Talkgroups North-1 48 / North-2 3664 / South-1 80 / South-2 3696)

Units Operating: Garland Water Department, Dallas County Health Department, Garland FD w/ Hazmat, Garland EMS, Garland PD, Dallas Fire-Rescue w/ Hazmat, OSHA

Units on Standby: American Red Cross, Granger Recreation Center

Weather Conditions: Sunny, Warm, High of 64 deg

Description Of Incident: A truck was reportedly offloading methanol and toluene in the unloading area and caught fire, which has been contained to that area. Chemical plant owned by Nexeo Solutions. Large chemical tanks heating up and venting. Smoke plume, currently stuck at 7,000 feet due to an inversion and is moving West from a 5 knot East wind, can be seen all the way into Dallas. Nexeo reports the pit is 80x80 and 4' deep with about 80,000 gallons of flammable liquid in it. No smoke/fire inside the warehouse but large number of chemicals on east side of the warehouse. No immediate reports of injuries but officials have evacuated the area in a 1/4 mile radius. Crews are having issues with water pressure. Crews are going to try and dyke the run off in the creek to keep it contained and to test the run off to see how much product is in. FAA has approved a no fly zone due to the smoke and hazardous chemicals in the air. FF's are spraying water on the surrounding tanks and in the area of the fire strictly to make an attempt at cooling them. Water is not being sprayed at the water for the fear of creating a spillover

1648 hours: Foam is not appropriate at this time due to the heavy amount of fire still showing. There will be too much run off if used at this point. Chief is reporting that it looks like it's starting to die down (hopefully) but still A LOT of fire.

1700 hours: fire is darkening down quite a bit now and as soon as it becomes more of a surface fire, they'll start foaming it.

1806 hours: About 8' of fire still showing on 1 side, shutting down water to see what they got.

1810 hours: Engine 10 is getting ready to deploy a foam blanket. Chief is trying to figure out his next course of action. The pit has vents on each side and is trying to figure out what the foam will do for them.

1818 hours: Starting water back up for foam operations.

1820 hours: Fire should be out in a few minutes but on west side of building there's some broken water pipes near the pump house that need to be shut off because they're just adding to the water run off. Engine 10 has a half tank of foam.

1822 hours: Fire is contained at this time, Dallas engines can be released but would like to keep their Hazmat. Operations are having to shut it down to fill the foam tank up again.

1834 hours: Beginning to overhaul and various Garland units can be released as well as the Dallas Hazmat and Battalion.

1839 hours: Engine 9 is loading up about 700 feet of 5 inch hose and could use some manpower to help

1908 hours: Fire is picking up a bit again and foam blanket is gone

1931 hours: Railroad can open their lines now, reports of people's bunker gear being contaminated from the fire. Most of the gear can be washed themselves but a couple pairs of gloves are going to have to be replaced or loaned.

1937 hours: Command is reporting they need about 5 pairs of gloves and about 5 more buckets of foam just in case of flare up. Fire appears to be out at this time though.

1944 hours: A few more units are being released, including the ambulance and in a few minutes the Dallas engine can be released from standby in Garland's Station 9.

Reporters: peterose313

NOTE: ALL TIMES REPORTED ARE IN CENTRAL STANDARD TIME

http://www.nbcdfw.co...-179720031.html

http://thescoopblog....n-garland.html/

Edited November 17, 2012 by peterose313