FAIR LAWN
OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

"EXERCISE 1998"

Prepared By:

Thomas Metzler, CEM
Director - Emergency Management

Michael Messina
Deputy Director - Emergency Management

Ira Marks
President - Local Emergency Planning Committee

On January 28, 1998 at the request of the Fair Lawn Local Emergency Planning Council (LEPC), the director of emergency management applied for and received a five thousand dollar H.M.E.P. Pass-Through Grant from the New Jersey State Police, Division of Emergency Management to conduct a hazardous materials drill in the Borough of Fair Lawn during the week of September 21-27, 1998. The grant application indicated the following:

A gasoline tanker exiting from Route 208 North onto McBride Avenue rolls over. The 8000 gallon tanker is leaking gasoline at a rate of 500 gallons per hour. Gasoline is entering a storm drain only twenty feet from the leaking tanker, with gasoline now in the Henderson Brook. Residents on the west side of town are reporting a strong odor of gasoline in their homes. What would you do?

At 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 27, 1998 Fair Lawn’s Emergency Service Units will respond to the above scenario. When they arrive they will find a 8000 gallon tanker, designed for training purposes by Mobil Oil Corporation, lying on its side and leaking. (Water will be used to simulate leaking gasoline).

First to respond will be members of the Fair Lawn Police Department who will cordon of the area pending the arrival of the Fair Lawn Fire Department. Seeing that there is no fire, the fire department will place foam over the gasoline spill to prevent it from igniting. Members of Fair Lawns Heavy Rescue Haz-Mat Team will enter the spill zone and first try to contain the gasoline from entering the storm drain. Members of the Fair Lawn Ambulance Corps will monitor members of the Haz-Mat team.

As the spill area grows from pooling gasoline, members of the Fair Lawn Police Department, Fair Lawn Auxiliary Police Department, Bergen County Police Department and New Jersey Department of Transportation will close the shoulder and exit lanes of Route 208 North. Additional Haz-Mat teams and fire companies from surrounding communities converge on the spill as gasoline enters the sanitary sewer system. Gasoline fumes are now entering many of the local industrial sites in the area.

With a strong smell of gasoline in the Westmoreland Elementary School Students will be evacuated in accordance with the H.E.A.R.T.S School Evacuation and Relocation Plan to the Fair Lawn Public Library and then bused to a Red Cross Shelter in the Fair Lawn High School. Assistance in the evacuation will be provided by mutual aid fire companies who will also go door to door in the affected area to simulate a door to door evacuation.

Due to the large amount of gasoline vapor in the tanker spill area and surrounding area the McBride Industrial Park will be evacuated resulting in the movement of approximately 1500 people.

A Table-Top Drill was conducted in the basement Emergency Operations Center (EOC) of Fair Lawn Emergency Management in the municipal building. In attendance was:

Tom Metzler, Director Fair Lawn OEM
Ira Marks, Fair Lawn LEPC
Michael Messina, Deputy, Fair Lawn OEM
Chris Neidenberg, Shopper News
Elvira Monigerato, Pres. OEM Nurses
Joseph Maslo, Fair Lawn DPW
Mary Ratzin, OEM Nurses
Ellen DeRulfio, MercMedco (LEPC)
John Kosciolek, Fair Lawn Rescue/Haz-Mat
Barry Leventhal, Bergen County OEM
Michael Shiner, Fair Lawn Rescue/Haz-Mat
Rodman Marshall, Fair Lawn PD
Jay Bender, Fair Lawn Rescue/Haz-Mat
Robert Martin, Fair Lawn PD
Donald Scales, Fisher Scientific (LEPC)  
Peter White, Fair Lawn DPW
Peter Yuskaitis, Chief, Fair Lawn Rescue/Haz-Mat
Tim Franco, Fair Lawn Fire Dept.
Joseph Wojtecki, Captain Fair Lawn Rescue
Steve Mehl, Paramus OEM
Michael Kearney, Chief, Fair Lawn Aux. PD
Janet Carretero, Nabisco (LEPC)
John Theill, Fair Lawn Board of Education
Emily Ehler, OEM Welfare
Bill McDonald, NJSP, OEM Division
Sgt. Vincent DeReinzo, Bergen County PD
Gail Cebular, President, Fair Lawn EMS
Jeff Williams, American Red Cross
Edward Trawinski, Mayor, Fair Lawn (LEPC)

The Desktop Drill began at 1830 hours. Participating agencies were introduced to the scenario as listed in preceding pages. Attendees were advised by Fair Lawn OEM Director Metzler that the desktop drill would be conducted as if it were an actual event, without the restrictions caused by a drill.

It was determined, based on the scenario, that the first responding units would be Fair Lawn Police, which would immediately close Route 208 north at the Fair Lawn Avenue intersection and the Route 208 south bound lanes at the 208/Maple avenue intersection. Assistance would be requested from both neighboring Glen Rock and the County would be requested to activate the Bergen county Traffic Incident Management Diversion Route Plan. Police supervisors noted that Fair Lawn police officers and units responding from out of town would experience one (1) plus hour delays as a result of the Route 208 Closure.

At this point OEM Director Metzler advised fire and Rescue/Haz-Mat units to use caution on the conservative side as gasoline was chosen because it passes through the area on a daily bases. However, large amounts of hazardous materials are shipped into the industrial park in a daily basis and the community needs to test its emergency response to the maximum.

Fire Department Chief Tim Franco indicated that a normal response would bring four (4) pumpers, one (1) snorkel, one (1) communication unit, one (1) foam unit, two (2) heavy rescue trucks and one (1) hazardous materials unit. The fire chief indicated that he would immediately request foam from the Northwest Bergen Mutual Aid Group.

At this point conversation turned to the topic of command. It was determined that on the original response IC would fall to the fire chief. Once determined to be a non-fire, hazardous materials incident IC would turn over to the Heavy Rescue/Haz-Mat Chief Peter Yuskaitis. Chief Yuskaitis advised the participants that he is not a Haz-Mat technician but will have a team member who is a technician at his side at all times. (Fair Lawn Heavy Rescue/Haz-Mat presently has thirteen (13) enrolled in the New Jersey State Hazardous Materials Training Program, including Chief Yuskaitis)

After some discussion amongst the group it was decided that:

Deputy OEM Director Michael Messina now took over control of the Desktop Drill as it was determined that at this point the EOC would be in full operation and the OEM Director and his staff would be in the EOC while the deputy coordinated on scene operations. Deputy Director Messina after discussion with IC ordered the evacuation of Nabisco and Columbia Savings Bank, ordered Shelter Manager Ira Marks to contact the Red Cross to open shelters, contact DPW to contain gasoline spilling into the storm drains, and requested that the EOC review sanitary sewer maps to determine where the gasoline in the system would impact.

At this time Trooper Bill McDonald, New Jersey State Police, OEM Division conducted conversations on the need to address Haz-Mat needs, type protection required, need to recover victim and area to be evacuated. It was decided that level C PPC would be required and although a much larger area was being evacuated then would be required for a gasoline spill, the evacuation training would be beneficial.

At 11 p.m. the Table-Top Drill was concluded. All agencies were given an opportunity to summarize their participation and all were advised that a follow-up meeting would be conducted to prepare the local agencies for the exercise. At the conclusion Trooper McDonald met with the leadership of Fair Lawn OEM, Mayor Trawinski and LEPC President Ira Marks to review the evenings events. Trooper McDonald was pleased with the number of people who participated, made some recommendations for the actual exercise and in general was pleased with this stage of planning.

EVACUATIONS

The evacuation commenced at 8:07 a.m. with three hundred seventy-eight employees, visitors and private contractors being evacuated from the facility and assembling at pre-designated meeting points behind clearly identified group leaders. The research portion of the facility did not participate and it is the contention of the observers that research center employees should participate in future evacuation drills to insure that they understand to proper procedures.

The Nabisco facility has put into place a complete incident command structure in which they utilize identification vests, radio communications, and a code of behavior indicative to a well thought out plan. It has been noted that one group of employees was directed to a gathering location in Spanish, it is recommended that a bilingual person be placed with this group. If a bilingual person is not available then the group leader should have a document explaining the language barrier accessible to emergency responders.

At 8:33 a.m. all employees were evacuated and accounted for. A relocation order was given by OEM and all employees were moved to the northern border of the Nabisco property. Some time was lost accounting for two (2) outside contractors who had been evacuated and accounted for. That accounting was not relayed to the Nabisco incident commander.

In conclusion, it is noted that Nabisco conducts evacuation drills annually and it is obvious that this facility is in a constant process of updating and refining.

The evacuation of the facility commenced at 9:35 a.m. with the sounding of the Sandvick internal fire alarms. Employees, visitors and outside contractors exited the building from three (3) sides.

It is noted that there was no designated group leader(s), no gathering point, no means of taking employee, visitor and outside contractor attendance. It was noted by management that personnel come and go from the facility through out the day and no record of who is in or out of the building at a given time recorded. It is approximated that one hundred fifty (150) to two hundred twenty five (225) people were in the building during the time of this evacuation.

Employees evacuated to the front of the facility and then moved away from the building using McBride Avenue (It has been noted that had this evacuation been the result of an incident to the south of Sandvick, employees would be walking into oncoming emergency equipment). A comprehensive review of this facilities emergency plan will be held in the near future with recommendations for improvement.

It is noted that the attitude of the firms management team was positive and cooperative with regards to improving concerns reported by the OEM staff. This evacuation was completed at 9:50 a.m.

The evacuation commenced at 10:21 with the sounding of the facility fire alarms. Employees, visitors and outside contractors promptly evacuated the building in accordance with their emergency operations plan and assembled at pre-designated gathering points where attendance was taken. It was determined that one (1) employee was unaccounted for. An immediate review with security and building management determined that one employee had in fact left the building earlier without signing out.

This fault was reviewed with Fisher Scientific management and will be addressed.

All employees were evacuated and accounted for at 10:26 a.m. At this time the evacuees were relocated away from the hot zone through the adjoining properties of Biomet and Sandvick Steel. Upon arrival at the relocation site attendance was again taken with all one hundred forty (140) employees, visitors and outside contractors accounted for accounted for. This complete operation was completed at 10:45 a.m.

Fisher Scientific executed their emergency plan flawlessly, a tribute to their concern for their employees, the community and the environment.

The evacuation of tenants, employees, outside contractors and visitors commenced at 13:03 p.m. At 13:07 p.m. sweepers emerged from the building and declared that all parties had evacuated. The building maintenance manager accounted for all outside contractors in the building and his observation was confirmed by a second sweeper who had knowledge of the designated evacuation location.

This facility is a multi occupied building. Each tenant assembled in groups around the perimeter of the building where attendance was taken. Although group leaders were not identified, their presence was obvious as they possessed employee lists for attendance. Visitors to the building, postal service, Fed-Ex, floral, etc. were directed to wait in their vehicles. This was viewed as a positive move as it allowed immediate confirmation on their welfare.

Future planning calls for group leader identification for responding emergency service personnel and a plan of egress further away from the building and a central meeting point. It is noted that building maintenance and OEM worked hard to have all of the tenants participate in this evacuation. The management team and tenants worked long hours to prepare for this exercise and their efforts are noted.

The evacuation of employees commenced at 9:10 a.m. Sixty seven (67) employees were evacuated from the facility. Although there was designated froup leaders, they were not identified and `ttendance was not taken. No one site possessed an employee or visitor list.

Once evacuated from the building employees moved to the north west corner of the property where it appeared that an informal attendance was recorded. At 9:15 AM business management advised OEM that all employees had been evacuated and accounted for. A review of this facilities emergency plan will be reviewed in the future.

The evacuation of Symtron employees, visitors and outside contractors began at 9:30 a.m. Only management knew of this evacuation in advance of its implementation so it reflects a real life situation. At 9:36 a.m., sixty three (63) persons, including two juveniles had been evacuated. Upon assembly of personnel on the north end of the building attendance was taken by group leaders who were not identified nor did they possess an employee and/or visitor list. It has been noted that no back-up froup leaders were assigned for employee group leaders who may be out sick.

Ht was determined that one (1) employee was missing and "sweepers" were returned to the building. The missing party emerged from the building at 9:37 a.m. after the second sweep and advised OEM observers that the did not hear the alarm as his office door was closed. Upon further investigation it was determined that "sweepers" do not open office doors to make sure the office is vacant and on this date the fire alarms, which were being repaired, did not sound. The evacuation order was issued via the facility intercom..

Symtron Systems management will be submitting updated evacuation plans to Fair Lawn OEM in the near future. It is noted that 17-01 Pollitt Drive is a multi tenant building and that Symtron did follow a written policy of notifying other tenants in the building of the evacuation. All evacuations and accounting was completed by 9:40 a.m.

Red Cross Staff and Volunteers indicated that shelter situation was "different" from their prior experience as the student body stayed under the control of the school staff and administration. School staff had obviously planned for the shelter experience as students were broken into two separate groups which allowed for better overall control.

Group one was fed lunch from 11:45 a.m. through 12:15 p.m. Group two’s feeding time was 12:15 p.m. through 12:45 p.m. All students were walked in an orderly fashion from the shelter located in the Fair Lawn High School Gymnasium into a secure cafeteria designated just for shelter residents.

It should be noted that American Red Cross Volunteers, OEM Nurses, Auxiliary Police and EMS were all in place prior to the arrival of the first students into the shelter.

Red Cross volunteers responded from Hackensack after receiving the request to open the shelter from the shelter coordinator.

The cooperation of the Fair Lawn School District, its teachers and administrators both from the Westmoreland School and the Fair Lawn High School is to be commended.

This school evacuation interrupted the daily operations of both facilities and never was a complaint filed. Their cooperation and professionalism is recognized and appreciated.

The evacuation commenced at 14:04 hours and concluded at 14:15 hours. The complete evacuation of employees, visitors and outside contractors took three minutes 11 seconds from the time of alarm activation to the time all parties were evacuated and accounted for by group leaders.

Observers were impressed by the management applied to evacuate one hundred forty (140) employees to pre-designated check points `round the property where they were met by clearly identified group leaders and search personnel. An interesting note here is the micro-break down of the building and assignment of multiple search personnel to insure a complete and thorough check of the building for remaining employees.

Held in the possession of each group leader, searcher and safety officer were flashlights, hats and portable radios. The premises was further secured by the on site security force positioning manpower about the perimeter. Seven minutes forty seconds into the evacuation all personnel were relocated to the property west of this facility. This area was accessed by walkways positioned between each property.

OEM observers have suggested that these walkways by painted yellow for full visibility and to avoid any vehicles from blocking these access points. The facilities EOP is presently being reviewed by the LEPC.

The evacuation commenced at 22:03 hours and concluded at 22:18:53 hours. There were no outside contractors in the building at time of evacuation with two hundred thirty nine (239) employees being evacuated.

Employees moved to the pre-designated check points and were accounted for in an expedient manner. In all this evacuation mirrored the proficiency of the morning shift evacuation leaving little for the observers to look to correct. The question of the research centers participation was raised again by the OEM observers and it was noted that the facility falls under the purview of the corporate safety division, phone # 973-503-2000. A follow up of this question will be conducted to insure their participation in the future.

GASOLINE TANKER ROLLOVER

Route 208 North & McBride Avenue

September 27, 1998

A full scale operational drill was conducted on Sunday, September 27, 1998 at the intersection of Route 208 North and McBride Avenue. Traffic control provided by the New Jersey Department of Transportation was in place prior to the drill activation . In attendance was:

Fair Lawn Emergency Management
Fair Lawn Heavy Rescue/Haz-Mat
Fair Lawn Auxiliary Police Department
Fair Lawn Police Department
Fair Lawn Fire Department
Fair Lawn Ambulance Corps
Fair Lawn Department Public Works
Fair Lawn Board of Education
Bergen County Emergency Management
American Red Cross
Bergen County Police Department
New Jersey State Police-OEM Division
New Jersey Department Transportation
Paramus Fire Dept. Haz-Mat Response Team
Glen Rock Fire Department
Mahwah Fire Dept. Haz-Mat Response Team
Elmwood Park Fire Department
Waldwick Fire Department
Saddle Brook Fire Department
Paramus Heavy Rescue
Saddle Brook Ambulance
Elmwood Park Ambulance
Glen Rock Ambulance
Paramus Ambulance
Teaneck Fire Dept. (Box 54) Canteen Service

The operational exercise began at 8:06 a.m. with a cellular telephone call to the Fair Lawn Police Department Communication Center to report a motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Route 208 North and McBride Avenue with injuries. Following Fair Lawn Police guidelines, a patrol unit (907) and supervisor (905) were dispatched to the scene. Additional calls followed to the police desk reporting a tanker truck lying on its side with a party lying in the street. Following police SOP, the Fair Lawn Fire Department, Heavy Rescue/Haz-Mat and one (1) BLS unit were dispatched.

RMP 907 arrived on scene at 8:09 a.m. and radioed the desk that he was closing Route 208 North, confirmed the rollover of a tanker truck with victim in roadway and requested that this information be relayed to the responding fire/rescue/Haz-Mat/EMS units and that OEM be notified. The road supervisor in RMP 905 requested notification to the county and state police to close Route 208 (Actual road closure was shoulder and slow lanes Route 208 North).

At 8:11 the Fair Lawn Fire Chief arrived on scene and requested a response from the Northwest Bergen Mutual Aid Association foam bank and mutual aid response from Central Bergen Mutual Aid to cover other fire calls in the community. Fair Lawn Heavy

Rescue/Haz-Mat Chief (890) arrived on scene and assumed incident command. 890 requested a Haz-Mat mutual aid from Paramus Haz-Mat and Mahwah Haz-Mat at 8:22 hours. 890 requested OEM 86 to establish a EMS/Fire staging area on the south side of Route 208. Arriving BLS units from Fair Lawn requests additional units for medical monitoring and to cover other in town calls.

At 8:23:23 hours, the police department requests auxiliary police officers to assist with traffic and crowd control. The IC is operating from the Fair Lawn Fire Department mobile command vehicle (979) and orders an entry team to ready to remove victim. Deputy OEM Coordinate Messina (896) requests that DPW be notified to provide sand for sand dikes.

At 8:27:35 hours, tanker is being foamed by the Fair Lawn fire Department foam unit. Medical monitoring of the Haz-Mat entry team in progress. At 8:41:06 hours the Fair Lawn Police supervisor requests a department recall through Community Alert Network (CAN). At 8:44 hours. Community Alert Network (CAN) advises desk that recall is completed, 8:44:39 hours. Fisher Scientific contacted the police desk to report a strong smell of gasoline in the facility. With gasoline entering the Henderson Brook and with strong evidence that gasoline has entered the sanitary sewer system OEM Coordinator (897) orders the EOC open and recalls department heads. Supervisors left on scene include:

Fair Lawn Deputy Fire Chief (976)
Fair Lawn Deputy OEM Coordinator (896)
Fair Police Road Supervisor (905)
Fair Lawn EMS Vice President (929)
Fair Lawn Rescue/Haz-Mat Chief (890) (Incident Commander)
Fair Lawn Roads Assist Supervisor

As well as department heads from mutual aid departments. It should be mentioned that parties that would have returned to man the EOC were placed in and around a bus on scene for observation purposes.

At 8:46:51 hours on the recommendation of 896, IC has ordered the evacuation of industrial facilities in the immediate area of the rollover and has requested the EOC notify the Red Cross to open shelters as a residential evacuation may be required. During this period of time mutual aid departments are arriving and placed as follows:

ON SCENE:
Paramus Rescue
Paramus Haz-Mat
Paramus Ambulance
Teaneck Box 54
Waldwick Fire Dept.

IN STAGING:
Mahwah Haz-Mat
Glen Rock Fire Dept.
Glen Rock EMS
Teaneck Box 54
Fair Lawn Co #2
Fair Lawn Co #4

IN QUARTERS:
Saddle Brook FD
Elmwood Park FD
Saddle Brook EMS
(Elmwood Park EMS Requested/Unable to respond)

08:56 hours - Public Works arrives on scene to control flow of gasoline into storm drain system. Entry team approaches and removes victim from hot zone. Victim is removed to full decon area where members of Fair Lawn Rescue/Haz-Mat decontaminate and prepare the victim for transportation. Police Department dispatched public information officer to scene to work with press.

09:00 hours. - IC receives information that a strong smell of gasoline is being detected west of the accident scene in home in and around the Henderson Brook. IC dispatches Mahwah Haz-Mat, Fair Lawn Fire Co#2 and Glen Rock EMS from staging for a second possible Haz-Mat operation. (Green dye was introduced to water leaking from the tanker at the Route 208/McBride Scene at 8:06 hours, the time the incident was first reported. This allowed emergency responders an opportunity to determine flow rates in the Henderson Brook). Arriving units report gasoline in the Henderson Brook in the area of 11th Street and recommended the evacuation of the surrounding area to the IC.

IC relays information to EOC for determination of area to be evacuated, notification of residents and update on shelters. The Henderson Brook Task Force reports to IC that an under flow dam will be constructed west of 11th Street for containment purposes. At 09:10 hours a State of Emergency is Declared by FLOEM and the County OEM is notified. An evacuation order is relayed to the IC for residence in the Henderson Brook area and authorization to activate the Community Alert System (CAN). The CAN message reads as follows:

The Borough of Fair Lawn Office of Emergency Management is conducting a test drill today on Route 208 and McBride Avenue. If this had been a real emergency you would have received emergency information via this test system. Repeating this is just a test. Please contact the Fair Lawn OEM at (201)794-5390 to register opinion of this type emergency notification.

09:18:28 hours - EOC relays to IC that CAN has contacted two hundred seventeen home in the evacuation area and that a list is being faxed of forty seven homes where no one was home. IC orders Fair Lawn Fire Co #4 and Glen Rock Fire from staging to assist with evacuations in affected area. (In order to determine real time in notifications, all homes not reached via CAN were visited by evacuation crews and a flyer left to advise of the exercise taking place.)

Members of Fair Lawn Haz-Mat and Paramus Haz-Mat re-enter hot zone to apply dome caps to leaking tanker and apply air bag straps to stop simulated leak from a hole in rear of tank.

09:43:12 hours - IC reports to EOC that gasoline leak on tanker has been sealed all entry teams presently in decon area and/or medical monitoring.

09:45:00 hours - Henderson Brook Task Force reports under flow dam complete, gasoline contained, foam applied to area.

10:13:43 hours - Affected home in evacuation area visited, police to remain in evacuation area. IC orders Evacuation Task Force to return to staging area, Paramus Haz-Mat to stand down in operational area and advises EOC the operational portion of the drill is now complete effective 10:17:23 hours. Request made to contact professional clean up contractor for clean-up and demonstration.

Mobil Oil Corp. & Shotmeyer Bros.
10 Wagaraw Road
Hawthorne, New Jersey 07506

Tow Truck Service Provided By:
City Wide Towing Inc.
181 Goffle Road
Hawthorne, New Jersey 07506

Notification of resident in evacuation area by:
Community Alert Network
255 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York
(800)992-2331

Commercial clean-up/off loading tanker demonstration by:
HMHTTC Response Organization
P.O. Box 5215
Parsippany, New Jersey
1-888-SPILLS-1

Financial Contributions By:

Columbia Savings Bank

Fisher Scientific

Merc-Medco

Nabisco

Fair Lawn 1998 Marathon Committee

Mack - Cali Reality

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