Re: emergency responders -Reply

[Jim Hardeman <Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us>]

Bill --

Another incident, to augment the one
which Bruce Bugg described earlier.
Several years ago (on the day after
Thanksgiving, as I recall) there was a fire
at a building just outside Atlanta which
housed, among other firms, a
geotechnical engineering firm which used
several moisture-density guages in their
work. The guages were properly secured
in a locked and labelled cabinet, and the
door to the room was conspicuously
posted.

When the firefighters got into the building
they noted the "Caution Radioactive
Materials" sign on the door to the room,
backed out and established a defensive
firefighting posture (i.e., protect
neighboring properties). 

By the time we were notified and made it
to the scene, all three of our local TV
stations had choppers in the air ... and
cameras on the ground ... a real media
circus.

One of my staff reentered the building with
FD personnel, located the devices and
determined that the lead shielding had
melted on all of them. Fortunately, we had
another cleanup ongoing in the Atlanta
area, and were able to spin up the cleanup
contractors to help us out ... had
unshielded Cs-137 source rods and
Am-241 "seeds" (the epoxy holding them
into the guages had melted away) to deal
with ... but no loose contamination.

All in all, it was a pretty good response,
although the FD's early defensive posture
MAY have led to more property damage
than an aggressive effort would have ... in
my humble (non fire-fighter) opinion.

Jim Hardeman, Manager
Environmental Radiation Program
Environmental Protection Division
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
4244 International Parkway, Suite 114
Atlanta, GA 30354
(404) 362-2675  fax: (404) 362-2653
Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us

From: <wfendt@UDel.Edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list
<radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2000
12:22 PM
Subject: emergency responders


> Radsafers-
>
> Would anyone wish to share any
experiences (either good or bad)
> regarding fire or ambulance response to
radiation use areas?
>
> A co-worker is preparing a presentation
to fire and emergency medical
> personnel and wishes to relate some
real life experiences-- names of
> institutions will NOT be used.  He will
focus on responses to
> non-nuclear facilities.
>
> Thanks in advance,  Bill Fendt University
of Delaware  wfendt@udel.edu
>
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The RADSAFE Frequently Asked
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information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html