7.10 Difficulties in the Incident/Evacuation
All of the incidents reviewed involved some difficulty in either the incident and/or evacuation and they varied per incident. The following difficulties per incident are identified below.
El Dorado, Arkansas
- Determination of the chemical involved
- Legal actions
- Receipt of information from other entities.
Graniteville, South Carolina
- Internal bickering with the establishment of the initial incident command center
- Loss of the main fire station.
South Salt Lake City, Utah
- Identification of the chemicals on the leaking rail car
- Incorrect train manifest.
Tools cited as being needed due to the difficulty of the South Salt Lake City incident are continued use of placards on the sides of the railcars indicating the product in the rail car and regulations on how to properly load rail cars.
Big Bear Valley, California
- Incompatible communication systems
- No communication once the valley incident commander left the incident command center.
February 6, 2006
Publication #FHWA-HOP-08-014
