Newburgh firefighters prepare for a hazmat foam drill
on the waterfront
NEWBURGH – Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney (D, NY18) announced a new bill he is cosponsoring, the Response Act of 2015, that will help provide funds for first responders, specifically fire and hazmat teams, allowing them to acquire equipment necessary in dealing with hazmat spills.
The new legislation, along with Governor Cuomo’s Oil Response Capability Program, will focus on preparing responders for potential oil train car combustions or spills, said Maloney.
He said they don’t want to wait until disaster strikes to be ready.
“We want to do the steps necessary now to be ready if there is an accident,” the congressman said. “We also want to have better trains with better cars; we want to have more intelligent technology that prevents accidents before they occur and I want to look at why we have so much oil moving down the Hudson Valley in the first place and what the alternatives are but, there is no substitute, when the worst case scenario arrives, for preparation, for training, for having the right equipment.”
Appropriately, Maloney made his announcement Wednesday during a City of Newburgh Fire Department training exercise on the Hudson Riverfront. Newburgh was one of 19 cities along the Hudson to receive foam cannons for combating hazmat spills and the exercise trained their first responders in the use of their new foam cannon trailer that they received last Friday, October 9.
Fire Chief Michael Vatter said the entire fire department will be trained and the trailer will be put into service shortly.
“It’s capable of handling an incident on its own probably about the size of the Lynchburg fire,” Vatter said. “If it’s bigger, we’ll get the other units coming in. The way the system is designed is these foam units are stationed along the rail-line at 30-50 mile intervals, it’s not a precise science but, basically, it will be able to provide mutual support to each unit and then there’s deeper reserves but, that’s the basic premise; that we can handle a small to moderate size event, keep it under control, get the additional resources here and keep our communities safe, especially those along the Hudson.”
In addition to the foam cannon, the fire department is also planning on purchasing a new, larger, fire boat. The craft will cost $331,000 and have the capacity to hold 15 to 20 rescued individuals, as well as the same ability to suppress fire as their fire engines. The city received a $248,000 Port Security grant as well as an additional $82,000 from the city, William Kaplan and New York Waterway collectively for the new boat. With the funds in order, the city plans to introduce the new boat very soon and add it to its roster of new emergency equipment.
