Our small FDgot a call from a factory saying that they had a chemical leak and would like the fire dept to check it out (only 2 or 3 guys on the dept. trained to the tech. level). The fire chief tells 2 green ff's to hop in the tanker and go check it out. They turn down the road toward the factory and it hits them CHLORINE GAS! They rapidlly get out of the tanker put their bunker gear on & SCBA. Radio the chief, tell him what they have. The director of a well trained regional haz mat team located 5 minutes away hears the radio traffic and offers to sent a haz mat unit to the scene. The fire chief tells him "negative". the chief calls the firefighters on a cell phone (he's not at the scene and he never responds) and tells them to take care of it. The young brothers, fearing reprimand, go and shut off a LEAKING CHLORINE CYLINDER, in regular bunker gear. The cylinder was located outside the factory. The 2 brothers were trained only to the awareness level. How I found out about this, I was going over SCBA drills in the bay (a large apparatus bay)and kept smelling something. One of the students asked to speak with me. He asked me if I thought his gear was o.k. Standing about 3 feet away from the chlorine vapors would sting your nostrils. This was 5 days after this incident happened! That's when I began piecing together what happened. The fire chief is the only full time paid fire offical in this town, everyone else is paid on call. He is now working furiosly to try to cover up the incident. The firefighters complained of some symptoms that may be relative, but at last word, the chief had the brothers talked out of any medical evaluation (one of the firefighters told me he didn't want to say anything due to fear of getting kicked off the department). What happens from here, I don't know.

FFCC.COM NOTES