West Union, Illinois | Ed Boysun - Is it ever advisable to douse the escaping cloud with a water spray? Ed incidents like this are what EMS / Fire responders nightmares are made of. Like many emergency decisions the answer is "It depends"
If people are threatened and you can possibly save a life by hitting it with water, then by all means do it. The gruesome reality however is if someone is engulfed by a cloud of ammonia their chances of survival are almost zero. One of the things we've been taught is in a vehicle accident involving NH3, if the victim has had contact with it you most likely will not save them. If you try a rescue without being fully equipped with an SCBA and turnout gear, and you want a stream of water over you and them to try and counter the effects of anhydrous ammonia, the possibility of you being injured or dying in the attempt is very very high
If the cloud is threatening a populated area and you can reduce the risk by hitting it with water then by all means do it. Keep in mind however you are just changing hazards. because now you have contaminated runoff to consider.
If you are in an open area and the cloud is not threatening anyone it might be better to let it dissipate. You have to consider the direction it is going and start evacuating people. And maybe squirting water into it to counter it is the thing to do. But you then have to keep in mind the exposure of firefighters, water supply, where the runoff is going, on and on.
The bad thing about a situation like this accident is the armchair quarterbacking. You as a responder, especially in an incident command position, make the best decision you can at the time. Afterwards way too many people start going "Well, you should have..." or "Why didn't you..." or "Well anyone knows ...". And the people that were doing it are looking back "Maybe if I had..." asking themselves "Why didn't we ...?"
You are making "risk versus reward" decisions. And usually in a situation like this you are often making very important decisions with very little information. The decision becomes "When we look back at this later should I have done something?" Most of the time doing something is chosen over doing nothing. At least you can defend your actions by saying you tried. |
Question for emergency responders
