Officials reveal mistakes that impacted Martinez refinery fire response

New details emerged this week about the massive February fire that erupted at the Martinez Refinery Company and disclosed more than gallons of hydrocarbon materials into the air as functionaries revealed that oil crews had been using incompatible radio systems that prevented immediate contact with local community safety agencies While county firefighters arrived on the scene minutes after being notified of a fire at MRC crews were stalled outside unable to contact the refinery operators on site a communication gap that delayed the establishment of a unified command center by nearly two hours Related Articles Probe continues into high-speed driver on taxiway at California airport Audit recommends stronger drug storage and oversight at San Jose Fire Department Great dad who died saving -year-old son from drowning on California lake was strong swimmer wife says -pound bear settles in beneath an California home thwarting creative efforts to move him out New swarm of quakes more than two dozen strikes San Ramon Internal breakdowns like those add to the chronic terror neighbors and businesses face downwind of the refinery disclosed Heidi Taylor who lives along its fence line in downtown Martinez She stated she s seen level-one alerts and enormous flaring almost every day for the past month which was substantiated by Contra Costa County personnel It s the populace that suffers as a effect of MRC s incompetence or what I would argue is gross negligence Taylor stated Tuesday at a Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors meeting Instead of switching channels on one device MRC employees have to carry two radios in order to communicate with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District and dozens of other agencies tuned to the East Bay Regional Interoperable Communications System s frequencies according to ConFire Deputy Chief Aaron McAlister It s not uncommon for emergency teams to juggle different devices which McAlister reported is frequently the episode when ConFire navigates wildland environments with CalFire brigades or interacts with police officers in Richmond But MRC only has a limited of these radios known as EBRICS and no one on the refinery s internal fire brigade had access to those devices the only radios tuned to provide a line of communication to ConFire s units during these types of emergencies Related Articles Probe continues into high-speed driver on taxiway at California airport Audit recommends stronger drug storage and oversight at San Jose Fire Department Great dad who died saving -year-old son from drowning on California lake was strong swimmer wife says -pound bear settles in beneath an California home thwarting creative efforts to move him out New swarm of quakes more than two dozen strikes San Ramon There s an entire petrochemical mutual aid organization bank of frequencies and refinery crews can use those frequencies without causing county responders any issue in our day-to-day operations McAlister notified the board Tuesday While presenting the county s review of the actions taken by urgency responders in February a common practice after high-profile incidents McAlister mentioned MRC demands to get accustomed to using the EBRICS in order to be prepared for the next urgency They need to practice specific radio discipline Dominic Aliano a spokesperson for MRC did not promptly respond when appealed how the company would ensure issues with the radios will not impact future emergencies at the refinery Taylor a founding member of the Healthy Martinez Refinery Accountability Group disclosed she was impressed with ConFire s proposed list of corrections and lessons learned She remained frustrated however by the failure to better anticipate possible hazards of the petrochemical products flowing through the barrel-per-day facility s trees of valves and pipes one of the the greater part complex in the U S She s yet to see any fence-line records recorded during the February flaring by high-tech sensors that the refinery which has been owned by PBF Resource Inc since its billion acquisition from Shell in installed a scarce years prior to monitor specific emissions in real time We are checking all sources we need more information not less Taylor announced We must be vigilant and demand better of MRC and continue updating systems to better protect us McAlister explained that requires a simple fix internal and cross-agency training that incorporates radio communication into daily routines County staff ranked the rest of the issues into buckets of high medium and low priority which ConFire will address over the next to months Ranking highest was the need to develop clear efficient plans to deploy joint response teams to a range of different emergencies which may not require the same tools McAlister also highlighted plans for interagency training exercises including predesignated radio frequencies and other procedures to communicate with the refinery Unlike the Chevron plant further down the coast in Richmond the MRC facility does not employ a professional full-time fire department McAlister commented Instead they cross-train refinery employees as firefighters which is similar to operations at the Phillips facility in Rodeo Contra Costa s second-highest fire official didn t gloss over challenges after MRC also took a lead role in communicating with the populace about the flaring and subsequent explosion at their Martinez facility The catastrophe damaged internal equipment and shut down refining for several months I think in hindsight when we look at this occurrence the general wants to hear from the inhabitants safety agencies that constituents safety is being mitigated McAlister reported Perhaps in hindsight again having such a large presence from the corporation may not have been in our favor Supervisor Ken Carlson who serves on the board overseeing deployment of EBRICS radios in Alameda and Contra Costa counties emphasized how numerous issues stemmed from a lack of cohesiveness between cabinet partners That was one of my personal pet peeves Carlson revealed Tuesday The society is relying on us Granted we never get it to them fast enough they re inevitably going to want to be in the know but we want to be one up on social media and speculation by the residents who are just going on perhaps observations or other theories I understand MRC is a separate entity and their spokesperson can ultimately do what they want to do as far as putting information out but what I think the general is looking for is making sure that that information is accurate across our partners