Category: earthquakes and volcano activity

http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2011/11/01/pennsylvania-firefighters-prepare-for-the-big-one/

Money quote:

“…And when it does hap­pen, the fire commissioner’s office has some inter­est­ing advice for fire­fight­ers. Roupp pauses to drive home the point: “You’re not going to put this fire out,” he tells the class.”

From the article:

“Talk to any emer­gency respon­der in a nat­ural gas drilling-heavy area of Penn­syl­va­nia, and he’ll prob­a­bly tell you it’s ‘only a mat­ter of time’ before a Mar­cel­lus Shale well blows up.

Whether it’s the antic­i­pated ‘big one,’ or day-to-day injuries on site, the nat­ural gas boom is cre­at­ing new chal­lenges for fire­fight­ers. StateIm­pact Pennsylvania’s Scott Detrow looks at what the state Fire Commissioner’s Office is doing to pre­pare emer­gency respon­ders for when the call arrives.

• StateIm­pact Reports: Fire­fight­ers Pre­pareStateImpact’s Scott Detrow reportsDown­load

In Lock Haven, Clin­ton County, about 20 emer­gency respon­ders are sit­ting in a fire hall, learn­ing the details of how a nat­ural gas well is “fracked.” A voiceover explains the details in a video, as muzak plays in the back­ground: “It takes over 350 pieces of pipe, weigh­ing nearly 87 tons, to drill a 10,500-foot well,” the voice explains.

The four-hour course is offered by the state fire commissioner’s office, and funded by a grant from the Mar­cel­lus Shale Coali­tion, which rep­re­sents the drilling indus­try in Penn­syl­va­nia. It’s designed to teach fire­fight­ers the basics on what hap­pens at a drilling pad, in case they ever need to respond to an emer­gency there.

In addi­tion to drilling 101, instruc­tor Skip Roupp lays out the dan­gers. “Again, haz­ards,” he says.  “High pres­sure, high tem­per­a­ture gasses and liq­uids and hoses. Trip­ping over cables, hoses and pipes.”

Roupp –  who works as Brad­ford County’s deputy emer­gency man­age­ment direc­tor –  stresses most of the calls that come from a well pad will be typ­i­cal con­struc­tion acci­dents. The major well fire, he says, is a one in a thou­sand event. “Which, liv­ing in Brad­ford County, scares the heck out of me, because we’re get­ting close to two thou­sand wells. So that means, if you fol­low that logic out, we’re due for a major blowout at some point.”

“It prob­a­bly will hap­pen,” he adds.

And when it does hap­pen, the fire commissioner’s office has some inter­est­ing advice for fire­fight­ers. Roupp pauses to drive home the point: “You’re not going to put this fire out,” he tells the class. “