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MVC w/ Haz Mat - (M29D2P) - Lorewood Grove Road / Route 1 Southbound
Sunday, April 5, 2009

At 09:17hrs, Station 15 was alerted to assist Stations 4/24 on a MVC involving an overturned gasoline tank truck on the off-ramp from Rte 1SB to Lorewood Grove Road. At 09:25hrs, B-4 arrived on scene and advised a overturned gasoline tank truck over the embankment with one subject trapped in the interior cab compartment of the vehicle. The New Castle County Haz-Mat Decon Team along with Department of Natural Resources (DNREC) was requested to the scene. At 09:29hrs, crews from Rescue 15 & Rescue 24 arrived on scene and initiated extrication efforts along with scene stabilization. The driver of the vehicle was heavily entrapped in the interior cab of the overturned wreckage and numerous rescue tools would be needed to handle the extensive extrication of the victim. Shipping papers were retrieved from the vehicle which revealed the trailer was hauling 7000 gallons of Gasoline and 1000 gallons of Diesel fuel. A walk-around was completed of the area which revealed no obvious leaks of the trailer at that time. At 09:34hrs, 248-B (Assistant Chief Jesse Hensley) assumed Route #1 Command and requested Valero Delaware City Refinery Station #34 be notified to respond with a foam tank truck to assist with mitigation. Valero complied with the request and dispatched 348-B (Assistant Chief Steve Bennett) and 34-1 to the scene. Simultaneously, Command requested area Fire Police & DelDot to shut down the south bound lanes of Route #1 at Wrangle Hill Road. At this time Command also requested for 15-8(Chief Jamie Rosseel)to assist with command functions at the Command Post as well as appointed Deputy 15 (Deputy Chief Bucky Finnegan)to be the Operations Officer for the incident. Command initiated Level 2 accountability to be established at the Command Post. Command also appointed a Safety Officer (President Gant), Water Supply Officer (Shawn Johnson), Accountability Officer (Krissy Kreutzer) & Staging Officer for the incident. It was determined there would be a extensive amount of cribbing needed for the extrication efforts & vehicle stabilization as well as additional manpower needed to assist with these efforts. Station 29 was dispatched to assist, with 29-4 & Tanker 29 handling the response. Station 13 also responded with USAR-13 with additional tools & cribbing. Due to the extended extrication, Command requested Trooper 4 to respond and standby for transport purposes once extrication was completed. Command also requested additional Tankers to respond to assist with the foam application, Tanker 24 & Tanker 26 responded to assist with this part of the operation. At 10:32hrs, Command was advised that a gasoline leak was now noticeable from the two end compartments of the trailer. A blanket of foam was applied to the immediate area. DNREC personnel handled controlling the extent of the leak while extrication efforts were still progressing in the cab compartment area. Command requested B&F Towing as well as Active Crane be notified to respond to assist with rescue & mitigating efforts. Command also requested the New Castle County Office of Emergency Management be notified of the situation. EMS personnel were in verbal contact with the patient during the entire length of extrication process. The patient was conscious and alert and able to relay information to EMS and Rescue personnel to assist with patient care as well as extrication efforts. EMS personnel also advised Christiana Hospital of the situation and to be expecting patient arrival via Trooper 4 once extrication was completed. At 11:39hrs, Operations reported to Command the extrication process was completed and the patient was being moved to Trooper 4 for transport to Christiana Hospital. After the immediate life hazard was handled, Command then met with DNREC and fire department officers on scene and developed a game plan to handle the trans loading of the loaded fuel tanker. The plan was initiated and by 13:10hrs the trans loading process was begun with fire department resources standing by to assist. The trans loading process would continue for the next several hours with Station 15 units being released by the Incident Commander at 14:15hrs to respond to a multi-patient MVC on Wrangle Hill Rd at Route 1. At 18:10hrs, the off-loading process was completed & Command placed the situation under control turning the situation over to DNREC personnel. **There is a 5 minute video of the incident in our Audio/Video Section to the left on our home page.** Responding Units: A-15, B-4, Rescue 15, Rescue 24, 4-6, Rescue 29, 34-1, 29-4, 26-3, 27-5, Tanker 24, Tanker 29, Tanker 26, HazMat Units 14,16,17,30, Rescue 17, Rehab-24, USAR-13, NCC EMS Medcom Unit, Medic 5A, ALS-21, ALS-17, EMS-1, Trooper 4, DNREC, DELDOT, Fire Police, & DSP.