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Recent Incidents
Air 6-6 Fills Cylinders At Tank Car Leak In Lanc. City
November 14th, 2005, 3:30 PM
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Lancaster Township Rescue/Air 6-6 assisted Lancaster City Fire
Department during a hazardous materials leak, filling empty air
cylinders.
Lancaster City Fire Department and Lancaster County Hazmat Team were
dispatched Monday November 14 at 2:32 p.m., to the Norfolk Southern
railroad tracks at Dillerville Road for a leaking rail tank car.
Railroad employees called 911 and reported an unknown substance was leaking out of the top of a railroad car.
The substance was determined to be pentane, a flammable volatile liquid
distilled from petroleum and used chiefly as a solvent and in medicine
as an anesthetic.
Due to the lack of a water source around the railyard, a tanker relay
was established. Tankers from Witmer and West Willow Fire Companies
established a water supply using a Port-a-Tank placed on the city
street.
Witmer Tanker 4-10-1 served as a "nurse" tanker. It drafted out
of the port-a-tank and supplied a city engine. Water was not flowing
constantly but needed to be ready to flow at any time, hence, the pump
needed to be primed and ready to draft. Water was dumped out of Tanker
4-10-1 back into the port-a-tank to circulate water through the pump to
both maintain the prime and keep the pump cool. Lancaster City Engine 1
used a hydrant at City Line Business Center as the fill site for the
tanker operation.
The Lancaster County Foam Task Force was also placed on standby at nearby fire stations close to the incident.
After a water supply was established, firefighters advanced two hose
lines to the leaking tank car to protect the haz mat entry team in the
event the flammable volatile liquid ignited.
After all fire suppression precautions were in place, haz mat
technician and tank car specialist Lieutenant Jason Wingenroth climbed
atop the tank car and secured the leaking valve under the dome cover
and stopped the flow of the liquid.
Lancaster City Battalion Chief Timothy Gregg said a substantial amount
of pentane escaped before a hazmat team closed an open valve. "There
was quite a bit of leaking from the top tank on the car," Gregg said.
The incident shut down the area of Dillerville Road from Harrisburg Pike to Manheim Pike from about 4 to 7 p.m.
Gregg said incidents that involve hazardous materials such as this one
typically take longer to investigate. "They take a lot of time to
research the material they are dealing with," Gregg said.
Fire Police from East Petersburg, Rohrerstown and Lancaster Township assisted directing traffic around the incident.
No injuries or property damage was reported.
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