Article: Downtown West Palm Beach (Florida, USA) radiation warning a false alarm

["Bruce Bugg" <obbugg@dmvs.ga.gov>]

Downtown West Palm radiation warning a false alarm

By Scott McCabe

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, January 27, 2005

WEST PALM BEACH- Fire-rescue workers responding to an office fire evacuated four downtown blocks Wednesday after an instrument reading indicated that the building carried a high amount of radiation.

Firefighters didn't find a fire, only the smell of burning wire or rubber and a reading of 95 clicks per minute on the first responders' Geiger-counter-like radiation machine. Fifty clicks is considered normal.

"Anything above (that) is hairy," said fire-rescue spokesman Phil Kaplan.

The incident began shortly after 3 p.m. Firefighters backed off from the two-story building at 321 S. Dixie Highway, which houses The Corradino Group, an engineering company overseeing I-95 projects, to protect themselves and the surrounding businesses and apartments until they could determine what they were dealing with.

Meanwhile, police evacuated dozens of people from nearby buildings and rerouted 5 o'clock traffic. FBI agents showed up, as did officials from the Department of Energy. The media buzzed in. Four television helicopters hovered overhead, and the news went international as Internet gossip Matt Drudge splashed it as the big story: Radiological Emergency in West Palm Beach.

But in the end, fire-rescue determined that there was no radiation leak. Firefighters entered the building with more sensitive equipment from the Palm Beach County Health Department and the original instrument and everything checked out as normal.

No one was hurt or hospitalized, city officials said.

"It was a good rehearsal," said Mayor Lois Frankel, who showed up on the scene.

Fire-rescue officials weren't sure what caused the radiation machine to shoot off the charts, but guessed it was probably a combination of combustible materials in the air, plus an enclosed room where six nuclear gauge operators are used to measure the density of the ground.

By 7 p.m., the building was reopened.

West Palm Beach fire-rescue workers rarely use the radiation machines that are on each truck, Jones said. But the firefighters pulled it out when they learned that the building housed machines that used radiation.

It's what's in the soil, the cement and even in some dinnerware, said Capt. Ron Lauth of the hazardous materials unit.

The 95 indicated that it was about double what's normally in the atmosphere, an amount that's still not enough to pose a health issue, "unless you slept with that amount in a bed for over a long period of time," Lauth said.

"But they did the right thing," Lauth said. "Back off, isolate the source, and investigate."

The Corradino Group tests for leaks every year, said company engineer Eduardo Perez de Morales. Workers who used the machine are tested monthly for the amount of radiation to which they might be exposed.

"We were not panicked at all," said Perez de Morales. "I didn't think it was anything. I left my computer on and was sending e-mails, but I agree with the firefighters that we need to take all precautions."

 

 

 

Find this article at:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2005/01/27/c1b_radiation_0127.html



 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Capt. Bruce Bugg

Special Projects Coordinator

Law Enforcement Division

Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle Safety

P.O. Box 80447

Conyers, GA  30013-8047

Phone: 678.413.8825

Fax: 678.413.8832

e-mail: obbugg@dmvs.ga.gov <mailto:obbugg@dmvs.ga.gov> 

 

"Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity." -- Charles Mingus (Musician, 1922-1979)



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