Propane Leak
 
By Assistant Chief Thomas Abraham
July 17, 2019
 

On the afternoon of July 17th, Orangeburg F.D. was dispatched to a hazardous materials condition at Beckerle Lumber. With a quick response Orangeburg F.D. (Dept. 11) advised they had a 300 gallon propane tank that had been struck by a forklift and had a large propane leak coming from the tank. At this point, RC Hazmat team was on scene setting up the game plan to attempt to manage this situation. Knowing the call will be a long term incident, along with the extreme humidity of the day, mutual aid was dispatched right away. Tappan F.D. responded with an engine and manpower to the scene within the initial 15 min of the incident, not knowing we would be operating for the next 5 hours. Tappan F.D. crews assisted with multiple tasks including hoseline operations, tactical support to Hazmat team, relieving air monitoring crews etc. All in all, it was a large scale incident that required many resources and a lot of time to ultimately control the scene and stop the leak. The final "burning off" of the propane didn't wrap up till almost midnight, making the incident over 10 hours + in length. A great effort between all emergency services to control a potentially very dangerous situation.

 
Units: 21-2, 21-1502