Fire chief urges action on tracking toxic chemicals

Amid mounting concern over the hidden storage of hazardous chemicals, Chief Fire Officer Errol Maynard has called for immediate action to establish a national tracking and surveillance system to protect firefighters and the public from unknown dangers.

Chief Maynard said even though the fire department can identify some companies that store toxic chemicals, especially based on the nature of the business, there are others that continue to operate under the radar.

He contended that there is a dire need for a comprehensive regulatory system that allows officers to be better equipped and prepared when responding to commercial fires, from the largest firms to the smallest businesses operating from residences.

“The storage of dangerous chemicals . . . the concerns will continue until we get to the stage where there are regulations in place, and surveillance enough so that we know exactly where chemicals are,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“People will buy chemicals, whether for domestic use, whether for a family or for commercial use or for resale. And, as far as I am aware, there is no tracking of these chemicals or how much is in a specific space, and sometimes we come across them by accident. 

“Because of that, we are always concerned. It is a concern for us until we develop and come up with a system that we can track, and we know exactly where chemicals are stored, and we can follow them until they are disposed of.”

The fire chief disclosed that the Fire Service is aware of the major companies where explosions could occur if there were a blaze.

He said: “We are aware of those possibilities. The issue would be if you store chemicals under your cellar, your bond house, and nobody knows that. We are aware that if you go to certain hardware stores, they sell fertiliser and things like that, and we are aware that there is a possibility of these things being stored there.

“But when you [have] a store that is attached to your house, and you say you are selling showers and hoses, but then in the back, you have five and 25 five-gallon drums of Gramoxone and other chemicals that you are selling on the side, that is where the problem comes, because there is no record of that, and there is no expectation of that; and that is where the problem comes.”

Maynard is therefore calling on those business owners to urgently declare the chemicals they have on their property so firefighters would be prepared for the various possibilities.

He said: “I don’t know of a database that says that when people call and say they have chemicals, that there is a central repository for it, that is known to not only us but to the health inspector [so that] when he goes, he knows it’s there; when the Environmental [Protection] Department goes, they know it’s there; when the Labour Department goes, they know it’s there. All of these are regulatory bodies, and I am not sure there is a central thing available as yet.”

However, the chief fire officer is optimistic that in time, the system will be put in place, while suggesting that the EPD is playing its part in helping to make the system a reality.

Asked if the Fire Service had already advocated for establishing the tracking and surveillance framework being proposed, Maynard said that although some preliminary work had been done, completion of the project would have to involve multiple State agencies.

He said he was unaware of the status of the proposed new system.

Maynard said: “There was some work done on that as it relates to the Fire Service . . . that’s a while ago. Some work was being done on the storage of chemicals, having a database set up to track the chemicals, but I can’t say for sure where it’s at right now.

“The concept was not at us, because you could appreciate that such a database would have to include chemicals coming into the country—that would be Customs . . . the [Environmental Protection Department], and Fire Service for where they are stored and how they are stored. So, that would be a multi-agency project.” 

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb