(Editor\u2019s note: This is the second in a series of two articles recounting a safety drill at Albemarle.)
\nWhen the siren sounded on Thursday, January 21, 2005 at 9 a.m., the simulated incident, which was a gaseous release of anhydrous ammonia, jolted plant workers into action. As a safety precaution, employees are always informed that a response exercise is scheduled. They aren\u2019t privy to the time, type or location of the release.
\nDuring the exercise, key Albemarle employees are positioned as proverbial \u201cflies on the wall\u201d to observe the response process and take copious notes about the strengths and weaknesses associated with the response effort. Steve Ellenberger, Safety Coordinator observed Tom Getz, Human Resources Supervisor and Ivan Riggle, Site Compliance Coordinator interact with the media.
\n\u201cMy goal is to reinforce what we do well and identify what needs to be corrected and devise a plan to correct it,\u201d said Ellenberger. \u201cIt\u2019s always better to find out what you can improve before you are in the throes of a real incident.\u201d
\nVirgie Werner played the role of a print journalist and Carolyn Patton represented a state government agency. Both former CAC members were able to visit the site and ruffle a few feathers with pointed questions and aggressive personalities.
\n\u201cI really think it was a tremendous idea to include community members in this drill,\u201d said Patton. \u201cI am hoping my participation in the event will help them present information the next time through. It gave a few people a jab in the arm, which is better to be jabbed now then when a real crisis occurs.\u201d
\nIvan Riggle was only one of the Albemarle employees to get jabbed! He greeted the media representatives more than four times over the course of the drill, providing updates and subjecting himself to a barrage of pointed questions.
\n\u201cThey did a fantastic job making me realize how information must be presented to our community,\u201d said Riggle. \u201cAs chemists, we tend to focus on the science associated with an incident rather than the details the community wants to know. This was a valuable experience for me to remember to focus on the human side of the incident.\u201d
\nGary Dennis, Deputy Director of Emergency Services participated in the drill and accompanied Mr. Riggle on several occasions. Tom Getz was assigned the task of keeping the media in a safe location during the simulation. He realized quickly that whenever Mr. Riggle left the area, his arm got tugged.
\n\u201cI learned that when the media wants information, they will take measures that I wouldn\u2019t think about to complete their story,\u201d said Getz.
\nJournalist Mike Pitterilli and Dan Yost decided to make a run for the plant to capture images of the employees\u2019 response effort.
\n\u201cThis was a simulation and nothing would happen to them,\u201d said Getz. \u201cBut if we were responding to a real event, we would need to monitor the environment to determine who can go where at what point in time in a safe manner. The safety of our employees, the community and the environment are our primary concerns.\u201d
\nThe actual drill lasted approximately 90 minutes. More than 30 employees assembled for a debriefing after the drill. Each participant offered commendations and recommendations for the next drill. The only unit to receive partial feedback was the employees manning the telephones. They could describe what they needed to do the job more effectively, but they didn\u2019t really know how their communication with the CAC members was rated.
\nMr. Sanders asked Ann Jabro to speak with each participant and have an assessment prepared for the CAC meeting later in the evening. Pat Campbell seemed to capture the consensus about the experience.
\n\u201cI feel much safer and more confident that in the event of a situation at Albemarle, they will be able to handle the situation more competently as a result of this exercise. They have been there and know how to approach a crisis situation and respond correctly.\u201d
\nThe employees who manned the telephone lines were credited with being patient, kind, and offering more information than the callers needed to know.
\nJohn Molnar commented, \u201cI felt the drill was professional and the telephone responders provided adequate information to satisfy my concerns. I thought this was a great way to get the CAC involved. It was an excellent experience.\u201d
\nWhile Ms. Jabro engaged in an evaluation with participants about the drill, Mr. Sanders prepared his presentation for the community advisory council meeting that started at 5:30 p.m. Mr. Andrews began the meeting with the plant update and then explained the Responsible Care Code, Community Awareness and Emergency Response, which is a template for the company\u2019s emergency planning and response efforts. Mr. Rod Bohner, Director of the Blair County Emergency Management Association attended the meeting.
\nIn the event of a crisis that necessitated the assistance of people other than Albemarle employees, such as the Tyrone Hospital, Tyrone Police or Fire Department, Mr. Bohner indicated that the command structure shifted from Mr. Andrews at Albemarle to his unit. He explained that \u201cjoint incident command\u201d is preferred, which is when his unit works in consultation with the company seeking assistance, such as Albemarle. However, Mr. Bohner is ultimately the only person who has the power to order an evacuation, shelter-in-place or other type of emergency response action.
\nWhen Mr. Sanders debriefed the CAC about the day\u2019s activities, he reported the emergency response team handled the incident with flying colors. Mr. Andrews served as the incident commander, or the person responsible for making decisions and managing the multifaceted components of a response effort.
\n\u201cWe learned that we needed local area maps to decipher where our callers were located in relation to the direction of the simulated release, said Andrews. \u201cThis was a critical piece of information that we really needed to respond effectively, but a simple problem to solve.\u201d
\nCAC members were also informed about the other areas that the company would invest time and training to manage. Dennis Reedy stated that he felt that, \u201cAlbemarle continues to be safety conscious in the community and I\u2019m quite impressed with the on-going activities.\u201d
\nMaureen Drain put the simulation in perspective.
\n\u201cIt identified the areas for diligence and speaks to larger issues. We need a unified communications effort to handle a crisis. The good citizen Albemarle does this, but we need to do these types of drills as a community so that we understand and rectify our weaknesses,\u201d said Drain.
\nMr. Sanders thanked the CAC for participating in the event and lamented on the numerous lessons learned in a 24-hour time period.
\n\u201cI had never expected so many other people would benefit from this training,\u201d said Sanders. \u201cThis has been an extremely informative and beneficial experience for our employees, for the members of the community, for the Robert Morris students, and for the CAC. We all learned something new.\u201d
\nIf anyone is interested in becoming a member of the Albemarle Fine Chemistry Services Community Advisory Council, telephone 1-800-484-7511, security code 3750 for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Editor\u2019s note: This is the second in a series of two articles recounting a safety drill at Albemarle.) When the siren sounded on Thursday, January 21, 2005 at 9 a.m., the simulated incident, which was a gaseous release of anhydrous ammonia, jolted plant workers into action. As a safety precaution, employees are always informed that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}