The Sunnyvale Sun
News
City works to respond rapidly during a crisis
By JASON GOLDMAN-HAL
The March 7 release of chemicals at the King's Academy school in Sunnyvale highlighted the need for quick response to hazardous materials in the city and county.
But in the absence of air raid sirens--once common during the height of Cold War fears--Sunnyvale and much of Santa Clara County is still trying to find ways to notify a large number of people in a short period of time should disaster strike.
In Sunnyvale, the response to hazardous material spills or releases such as the accidental mixing of pool cleaning chemicals at the King's Academy comes in a number of forms. All Sunnyvale public safety officers are trained in how to respond to those situations and identify the type of material in question.
In addition to the training all officers receive, Lt. Marty Dale said, there are nine officers on duty at any given time with extensive hazardous materials training.
In Sunnyvale, hazardous material officers are split into two groups, technicians and specialists. Technicians must go through 160 hours of training in hazardous materials prior to their assignment, and specialists must undergo an additional 80 hours.
All Sunnyvale hazardous material handlers are specialists.
In addition, those officers get 16 hours of in-house training a year to stay current on proper procedures, and 40 more hours of county-provided training.
Sunnyvale Fire Station 2, at Wolfe Road and Arques Avenue, houses Rescue 2, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety's hazardous response vehicle, and it is constantly staffed by two specialists and a lieutenant with hazardous response training.
Dale said Sunnyvale's hazardous response teams have had a lot of practice since the 9-11, attacks, because the public is quick to report any suspicious liquids or powders they encounter.
"What used to be a bit of detergent spilled by kids is now this toxin or that toxin left by terrorists," Dale said.
Dale said Station 2 is used because it is centrally located for quickest response time in the event of an emergency.
Capt. Craig Farley, head of the City's Office of Emergency Services, said the first priority in an emergency situation such as the King's Academy incident is protecting life, so immediate evacuation and isolation of the area is the first step.
At King's Academy, this meant moving students to a secure, indoor location away from the pool area.
To notify the surrounding neighborhood, Farley said Sunnyvale uses "The Communicator," a city-wide, map-based phone system that allows the Department of Public Safety to automatically call home phone numbers in a given area. Because of a partnership with SBC, Farley said the department can call listed and unlisted numbers. During the King's Academy leak, it was able to reach about 1,000 homes in an hour.
As people are evacuated and houses are called, Farley said other DPS officers would close streets and prevent people from entering isolated areas until hazardous response teams can handle the problem.
Farley said DPS has 24 phone lines that can be used to notify homes, but it would take hours, if not days, to notify all of Sunnyvale that way.
To deal with this, he said the department is currently working to install a local AM-radio transmitter in the city to allow it to broadcast emergency information to home and car radios, to protect commuters and people away from their homes.
He estimated the system could be in place within six months.
And while Sunnyvale officers are trained to handle smaller, isolated incidents in the city, Dale said every city in the area realizes that if a major chemical leak, natural disaster or attack was to occur, all of Santa Clara County would need to work together.
"It's very easy to create an incident that would overwhelm a single city," Dale said.
To handle that contingency, Sunnyvale participates in a mutual aid agreement with other Santa Clara County cities, to coordinate and assist with large-scale operations.
Part of the 40 hours of county training each year goes into coordinating and standardizing response procedures to make sure each individual city can work with the others.
