Advice offered for oil or gas well emergency
By Christine Haines
chaines@yourmvi.com
A fire or spill at an oil or gas well site — or at a location such as the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill that takes waste from those sites — is handled differently than other HAZMAT situations, according to the environmental group Protect PT.
The group addressed what residents should do if there is a HAZMAT situation near their home or office during a Zoom training session last week as part of a free four-part training series.
“The firefighters have an enormous task when a fire breaks out or a pipeline breaks,” said Gillian Graber, executive director of Protect PT.
Graber said each gas or oil company is required to have its own emergency response plan that addresses spills, fires, explosions, leaks and similar problems.
Local emergency responders are responsible for making sure residents are kept safe, either by being evacuated or by sheltering in place.
“Their job is to make sure the public is safe,” Graber said. “When an incident happens, they aren’t allowed to be on the site. The company has hired an outside company to take care of that.”
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