FDNY Vs. NYPD Hazmat Issue

[ajsbear 11]

From the NY POST

FRANKIE EDOZIEN

Courtesy of New York Post

May 25, 2005 -- The NYPD kept firefighters away from a potentially dangerous chemical spill in a garbage truck while cops and sanitation workers handled the situation on a busy Manhattan street.

The Post obtained a video of the April 27 incident near NYU in which sanitation workers in wet suits and police officers poured chemicals on a gallon container in the truck's hopper that was spewing acrid smoke.

Members of the FDNY's Hazmat unit, who responded only after the FDNY was called by a passer-by, were kept behind yellow police tape.

The incident began when a sanitation worker inhaled fumes from the smoky container and called his supervisors. They notified city and sanitation cops.

A spokesman for the Sanitation Department, Vito Turso, said the material turned out to be muriatic acid, an industrial-strength cleaning agent.

"They [the NYPD] theoretically are in charge at that point in time," Turso said. "We must notify the Police Department, which we did. They were the agency in charge."

Last month, Mayor Bloomberg signed an executive order that puts the police in charge of any situation that involves hazardous material and is suspected to be a terrorist attack or a crime.

It's unclear if the NYPD officers who responded believed it was actually a terrorist attack or a crime. But they never notified the FDNY, which is supposed to be allowed to help, even if the cops are in charge.

"It's a concrete example in which the Police Department is preventing the Fire Department from participating. There is no reason to believe this is an isolated event," said a peeved City Council Speaker Gifford Miller.

"The mayor needs to sort this out."

FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon said, "We obtained a copy of the video and we sent it to the Office of Emergency Management for review."

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said cops and sanit workers "created a frozen zone, donned protective gear, and neutralized the acid using soda ash compounds." He said that when the FDNY arrived, the situation was already under control.

[JBE 328]

This is old news. What makes it worse is the victim was transported to the hospital HOURS before anyone was notified.

Just a side note here, Last night in Corona there was a box out for fumes in the building. FDNY went, and NYPD was NOWHERE to be found. The Haz Mat Battalion, in a pretty stunning move, announced this over the radio.

[JM15 386]

thats funny

[MGMedic 0]

In watching the tape re: the job w/sanitation, members of FDNY's HazMat were kept behind the yellow tape, but a civilian was allowed to walk thru the "hot zone" set up by NYPD, amongst many others mistakes. Someone (hopefully not one of us) is going to have to get hurt before they realize the foolishness of all this.

[Guest aussiegeorge]

this carn't be real cops in charge of hazmat incidents must be the only place in the world this happens,then again they tell me the cops also do rescue in nyc thats pretty strange also.

[JBE 328]

Only certain types of rescues. As it was explained. Back in the 70's, there were very few, if any fire companies available to handle auto accidents and things like that. The NYPD's Emergency Service Unit took over a number of different emergencies. Now, there is less fire duty and more emergencies. For auto accidents, it's whoever gets there first. I believe for things such as high angle and technical rescue, it's FDNY.

[vwwh1 0]

If anyone watched the video...you were correct in saying that there was a civillian that was within feet of the truck while the PD was in level B suits and they were washing it down while the "contaminated" water just flowed out of the truck, onto the ground and they never captured it...or contained it.......Hmmm...as the saying goes..a picture is worth a thousand words..if this is what you do on the little one....?