Crime & Safety

Hazmat Organization Honors Fire, Police Departments for Response to Pipeline Explosion

The organization gave the award to the San Bruno fire and police departments at the recent Continuing Challenge hazardous materials emergency response workshop, saying the agencies' training showed in their handling of the disaster.

The fire and police departments here were recently given an award by a state hazardous materials training organization for their skillful response to the Sept. 9, 2010, pipeline explosion. 

The Continuing Challenge, a consortium of local, state and federal emergency responders, honored the agencies with the Leo K. Najarian Responder of the Year Award at its annual hazardous materials workshop in Sacramento over Labor Day weekend. 

A rare honor, the award is named after a Los Angeles battalion chief who was one of the early founders of hazardous materials response and it is given to a person or agency that best exemplifies the spirit and practice of responding to an emergency. Previous recipients of the award have been the New York fire department for its response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the U.S. Coast Guard for its response to Hurricane Katrina. 

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“Given the fact that San Bruno is a small city with not a lot of resources, they tackled what was a humungous incident because of planning and training,” said Bob Hamilton, a retired San Rafael fire captain who is the operations manager for the Continuing Challenge annual workshop. “All of the cogs and wheels worked perfectly.” 

When the pipeline ruptured, it took more than 90 minutes to manually shut off the line because the fire’s intense heat prevented crews from getting close to the valves. 

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Initially, first responders thought the fire was caused by a plane crash. But when they realized it was something totally different, they set up a command post and called for help from about 200 firefighters and police officers throughout Northern California to fight the six-alarm blaze. 

Although eight people died, dozens were injured and 38 homes were destroyed, San Bruno emergency responders were and for preventing what could have been an even greater disaster. 

“Give that many people thought it was a plane crash and they were trying to keep it from growing bigger than the initial incident, all of the planning came out in the response work,” Hamilton said. “It truly became a regional type of response. All of the (pieces) fit together.” 

Fire Chief Dennis Haag told the council at its last meeting that it was “quite an honor” to receive the award and thanked a San Francisco police officer for nominating the San Bruno agencies for the recognition.


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