EQ Recovery Plant Explosion/Fire Romulus

[MacombMonitor]

At about 9:30PM this evening there was a very large chemical explosion, and fire, at the EQ Resource Recovery Plant, on Van Born Rd, in Romulus, Michigan. There has been numerous explosions since, and the fire continues an hour later. It was said that ammonia gas was released. The sky is glowing orange from the fire, and can be seen from quite a distance. Large clouds of black smoke rising very high in the air, with a 6 MPH wind from the South. The Michigan State Police are evacuating homes nearby. There could have been as many as 30 employees at the plant when this occured, but current information indicates they all were able to escape.

 

[seamusg]

'Toxic' Explosion Shakes Wayne
An explosion at a chemical factory in Wayne is causing a hazardous situation in the area.
Local 4 is reporting that the explosion is in the area of Wayne and Van Born roads.

The Wayne County Sheriff's Department is cautioning that this is a hazardous materials situation. Residents in the area are being told to close doors and windows in their homes.

The sheriff's department is assisting with evacuations. Hazmat crews are at the scene.

Witnesses are saying the smell is permeating the air and is "toxic." Massive fireballs were exploding in the air, according to witnesses.
Ch7 NEWS is saying FD can't get near it.

 

[seamusg]

Isn't this Thunderbolt's area?

 

[Thunderbolt]

I am ok, I live inside Washtenaw County, well enough away from the fire at the chemical plant. I have seen some industrial fires in the past, but this one looks like it might top them all. I was watching the coverage on News 4 and its unbelievable to say the least!

73's

Ron

 

[seamusg]

I thought you worked in that area. CH 7 had real good video from 2000 ft and comments about comms with Metro tower.

 

[smartboy06]

I live in Romulus, but on the very southeast side (about 6 miles from the plant). I was glued to the TV (and scanner) last night. The important thing is that NOONE was seriously hurt. There were a few people that went to Annapolis on respiratory distress, but beyond that nothing. Wayne evacuated from the RR to Wayne and from Van Born to Annapolis (i think the hot zone was extended to Forest St). Romulus evacuated the immediate area (there are a few houses down along Wayne Rd)

Last I heard, they are letting the plant burn down because 1. they cant get to it from Van Born becuase of the smoke 2. they cant get to it from the RR side and 3. it was just too darn hot!

All the communities involved did a marvelous job! I have a new found love for mutual aid.

These are the agencies that I know of that are helping. There are probably many, many more, but this is what I can remember.

Romulus PD/FD/DPW/EMD
Romulus Schools (RHS)
Wayne PD/FD
Wayne Schools (WMHS)
Wayne Co SD
Wayne Co EMD
Wayne Co Roads
WWC HAZMAT
Oakland Co HAZMAT
MSP
Westland FD
ATF
Metro Airport FD
Livonia FD
Riverview PD
U-M Survival Flight (used as an eagle eye for the fire chiefs)
Red Cross
Salvation Army

Again, great job to all

 

[Combustion]

A rather interesting event. Yes the agencies did a great job. It appears that a lot of the interagency communication was by telephone and was handled with only minor delays.

Not to be negative or sarcastic, but rather factual I offer the following thoughts.

With the agencies involved and their different radio systems, State, Western Wayne County, Wayne County New Type 2 on trunked systems; and Romulus et al on their discrete frequencies (I am ignoring the air frequencys and news agencies here) I reflect upon the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on radio systems with the word interoperablity as a reason for the disbursement of funds, and in reality find that there is almost no interooperability most of the time.

How it is now is not necessarily a bad thing, for interoperability or managing a large scene has little to do with the radio in the hand of the personnel. It is very much related to a properly managed control center that passes the information on to the appropriates agencies as the information related to their function is needed. That is the basis for how the Detroit Police Department appears to handle a lot of radio traffic in an orderly manner.

Interoperabilty as related to the new systems appears to be a psychobabble term for radio system sales people to use on politicians to extract the large amounts of money from the tax fund. In some cases a strong central command center is involved in the radio system upgrade. In Wayne County
this is not true.

 

[smartboy06]

That was going to be my next post. I have a couple of views on the local systems.

1. Romulus' system sucks. The only time I can hear the cars or preps is when they are in the area that I am in. Same for the FD. Also, the only "interop" there is is Intercity, MEPSS (who uses that around here?) and mayyyybe a MPSCS radio for the EMD.

2. Continuing with Romulus. We need some way to communicate with the Airport, County, and State. I cringe at the thought of the bad things that could happen if (god forbid) another 255 happens.

3. Right now, they are dealing with a problem with FFs going in w/o monitoring. The CP is going ballistic. If we had a better system, maybe this confusion wouldn't have happened.

4. Funny...I-Call and the I-Tacs were SILENT. Why??? Also, DNR Fireground wasn't used, nor was MEPSS

Some obvious solutions:
1. MPSCS
2. (Warning: will sound crazy) Merge Downriver TRS, Western Wayne TRS, and Wayne Co TRS into one "megasystem".
3. Do something like DuPage Co's DIRS. Have multiple freqs from each band (VHF, UHF, 800) that can be patched together and used for countywide mutual aid, events, etc. On second thought, USE THE I-FREQS!

 

[ffexpCP]

I was at my station last night when they toned out for it. It was quite an interesting size-up report.

 

[MacombMonitor]

I hear the fire is still burning, and they've decided to let it burn out. Normally I'd say not a bad idea, but if in fact the fire is still releasing toxic fumes, It surprises me that they contine to let it burn. Who knows what chemicals are involved, but I would think the fire fighting equipment from the airport, that blow out huge amounts of fire smothering foam, would have been able to put that fire out rather quickly?

 

[smartboy06]

I'm hearing unusual IDs on Romulus PD (155.535) like 402 and 517. From what I know, 402 would either be Wayne PD or WCAA PD and 517 would be Allen Park PD.

I'm thinking that some folks from other agencies have Romulus radios.

Also, the Commanders of the different op centers (Fire, HAZMAT, Planning, etc) are on WCTRS 58928.

 

[seamusg]

From what was reported on TV, the problem is wind direction. They can't get in from the back side. They can't get the equipment over the tracks.

 

[smartboy06]

Right now, Metro Airport crash trucks (207 & ?) is throwing foam on it. From what I hear, the big delay was the toxic fumes possibly harming the FFs and knowing exactly what they were working with.

With regard to the ARFF putting out fires so quickly, they know that they are only working with jet fuel and airplane "stuff" Here, there was talk of acetone, alcohol, ethanol, deice fluid, paint solvents, so again, they needed time to figure out what was on fire where.

 

[seamusg]

Isn't acetone and fire deadly?

 

[Combustion]

Two notes:

They are handing out radios to other agencies.

Acetone withhout fire is deadly to breath and if you can breath and smell the fumes you better run because it wants to be a fire. At 10% concentration in water the flash point is 80 F. This would result in the logic of not pouring water on it. Whats the point if you have to dilute thousands of gallons 20:1 with water to put it out? You are better off letting it burn.

 

[Thunderbolt]

Some obvious solutions:

2. (Warning: will sound crazy) Merge Downriver TRS, Western Wayne TRS, and Wayne Co TRS into one "megasystem".

This was actually proposed at one time, but apparently the powers that be can't agree on how to do it properly. From what I understand, most members of the W. Wayne Mutual Aid, doesn't want to spend the money to upgrade to ASTRO 6.3 and become a subsystem of the MPSCS. Likewise, the Downriver TRS needs to be upgraded to become compatible with the MPSCS, and they want to switch to microwave feeds rather than using the current fiber optic lines already in place to link the towers together.

The bottom line is that last night their was NO interoperability whatsoever and during the first hour of the incident, communications was relayed by telephone and runners on foot. Moreover, many of the police officers from Inkster, Romulus and Wayne were complaining that all their cellphone circuits are jammed. IMHO, if they would have used homing pigeons, it would have been a step forward last night, as all the cell networks were overcrowded around the immediate area.

73's

Ron

 

[Combustion]

Ron,
I should have stated land line in my previous message. It appears that there was a lot of dispatch to dispatch conversations. Cell phone technology sure disappears when there is an emergency node and you are asking the system to handle more than a 15 or 20 full duplex conversations. It is not to be relied upon. As far as foot running goes I wouldn't want to do it. But I saw a lot of that going on during the big accident(s) on I-96 earlier this year, the cell network was not usable in that situation due to capacity. That was worse because every motorist in the miles of carnage was trying to call someone. Once again despite the hinderances the job seems to get done well most of the time.