Emergency crews test response time

Friday, Nov. 9, 2001 | 9:48 a.m.

Chances are that responders would react to a hazardous chemical spill caused by a terrorist as they would respond to a spill that was simply an accident.

"Hazardous material is hazardous material whether the spill was caused by a terrorist or an accident," Henderson emergency manager Mike Cyphers said. "The only difference is intent."

Henderson firefighters and a Clark County Fire Department hazardous materials platoon got a chance to hone their skills Thursday during a two-hour exercise at the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. plant in Henderson.

The annual exercise, sponsored by the Henderson Manufacturing Association's Community Awareness and Emergency Response group, was intended to test the coordinated efforts between emergency responders and private industry. The timing of the exercise, coming less than two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was merely coincidental.

But Kerr-McGee has beefed up security since the attacks, plant manager Rick Stater said.

"We have made sure that our security makes extra rounds, and we're on heightened awareness of anything unusual," Stater said.

The exercise simulated a pressurized chlorine leak from a one-ton metal cylinder at the rear of a flatbed truck. Cyphers said one notable difference between an accident and an act of terrorism is that "with a terrorist they usually don't tell you what they've done." A terrorist, for instance, may spill a chemical from an unmarked container that may take some work to identify. Accidents from trucks, however, typically involve marked containers that immediately make firefighters aware of the chemical involved.

There has been considerable speculation nationally about the possibility that a terrorist could hijack a chemical or gasoline truck and use it as a bomb. An estimated 6,000 pounds of hazardous materials are transported through Clark County daily.

But county fire department spokesman Bob Leinbach said it would be difficult to predict the extent of damage such a truck bomb would inflict if it were to strike a building.