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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
False hazardous materials alarm creates gridlock in Leesburg
Posted by:
Loudoun County News
()
Date: September 26, 2011 10:08AM
False hazardous materials alarm creates gridlock in Leesburg
Friday, Sep. 23 by Laura Peters
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/Gridlock0943/
The Route 7 Bypass in Leesburg was closed for more than two hours the evening of Sept. 22 while Loudoun County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management officials investigated a suspicious barrel along that road that could have contained hazardous materials.
The call came in around 5:30 p.m. from an area near the Children’s Center Road bridge on the Bypass.
Fire-Rescue officials began working with the Leesburg Police Department, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia State Police and the Virginia Department of Transportation to identify the liquid contained in the barrel.
According to fire and rescue officials, their protocol for dealing with potential hazardous materials is to secure a 300-foot safe zone to isolate the material, so they did so around the Bypass.
The incident caused major traffic delays throughout town.
According to a news release, the hazardous materials team, along with VDOT, were able to identify the barrel as belong to a contractor working on the bridge. The contractor informed authorities of the barrel’s contents and said it was there because of protocol to seal the container at the end of a shift, then abandon it in the median for it to be picked up by another company, which then disposes of it.
The barrel, which did not have identifying markings, was called in to 911 by a driver prior to it being picked up for the day.
The substance was identified as a water-based product that is used to collect runoff and debris from cleaning and sandblasting the bridge.
The Bypass reopened after no hazardous materials were found.
Friday, Sep. 23 by Laura Peters
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/Gridlock0943/
The Route 7 Bypass in Leesburg was closed for more than two hours the evening of Sept. 22 while Loudoun County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management officials investigated a suspicious barrel along that road that could have contained hazardous materials.
The call came in around 5:30 p.m. from an area near the Children’s Center Road bridge on the Bypass.
Fire-Rescue officials began working with the Leesburg Police Department, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia State Police and the Virginia Department of Transportation to identify the liquid contained in the barrel.
According to fire and rescue officials, their protocol for dealing with potential hazardous materials is to secure a 300-foot safe zone to isolate the material, so they did so around the Bypass.
The incident caused major traffic delays throughout town.
According to a news release, the hazardous materials team, along with VDOT, were able to identify the barrel as belong to a contractor working on the bridge. The contractor informed authorities of the barrel’s contents and said it was there because of protocol to seal the container at the end of a shift, then abandon it in the median for it to be picked up by another company, which then disposes of it.
The barrel, which did not have identifying markings, was called in to 911 by a driver prior to it being picked up for the day.
The substance was identified as a water-based product that is used to collect runoff and debris from cleaning and sandblasting the bridge.
The Bypass reopened after no hazardous materials were found.
Re: False hazardous materials alarm creates gridlock in Leesburg
Posted by:
Investigation?
()
Date: September 26, 2011 10:12AM
So Leesburg and/or Loudoun county hired a contractor to do the work and did not know of this protocol? Did they read the specifics of the contract and think to question a container sitting in the middle of the most heaviest traveled road in the county? So millions of dollars was sent to Loudoun (911 funds) to train officials with situations like this. In return. we have hours of gridlock because of pure stupidity. How much did the response cost tax payers? If it is company protocol to leave something like this in the highway, it does not make it legal. So either Leesburg allowed this and failed to notify the emergency depts. or the contractor screwed up. However, it is nice to know this was just a stupid mistake and did not place our responders in harms way…...Gotta thank the alert passer by as well!
Re: False hazardous materials alarm creates gridlock in Leesburg
Posted by:
Blunder
()
Date: September 30, 2011 07:01AM
Investigation? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So Leesburg and/or Loudoun county hired a
> contractor to do the work and did not know of this
> protocol? Did they read the specifics of the
> contract and think to question a container sitting
> in the middle of the most heaviest traveled road
> in the county? So millions of dollars was sent to
> Loudoun (911 funds) to train officials with
> situations like this. In return. we have hours of
> gridlock because of pure stupidity. How much did
> the response cost tax payers? If it is company
> protocol to leave something like this in the
> highway, it does not make it legal. So either
> Leesburg allowed this and failed to notify the
> emergency depts. or the contractor screwed up.
> However, it is nice to know this was just a stupid
> mistake and did not place our responders in harms
> way…...Gotta thank the alert passer by as well!
Yep
-------------------------------------------------------
> So Leesburg and/or Loudoun county hired a
> contractor to do the work and did not know of this
> protocol? Did they read the specifics of the
> contract and think to question a container sitting
> in the middle of the most heaviest traveled road
> in the county? So millions of dollars was sent to
> Loudoun (911 funds) to train officials with
> situations like this. In return. we have hours of
> gridlock because of pure stupidity. How much did
> the response cost tax payers? If it is company
> protocol to leave something like this in the
> highway, it does not make it legal. So either
> Leesburg allowed this and failed to notify the
> emergency depts. or the contractor screwed up.
> However, it is nice to know this was just a stupid
> mistake and did not place our responders in harms
> way…...Gotta thank the alert passer by as well!
Yep