Firefighters blast Gloucester County, NJ over protective equipment at Paulsboro train derailment. Chief pulls crew from county team.

Philadelphia News, Weather and Sports from WTXF FOX 29

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Read editorial, ‘This is not a drill and Gloucester County failed’

Firegeezer.com coverage of train wreck

Carly Q. Romalino, South Jersey Times:

Gloucester County’s alleged negligence in hazardous materials equipment maintenance  is “completely unacceptable” and “not the first incident,” claim Washington Township firefighters who responded to the Paulsboro train derailment and chemical spill last month.

In a letter (below) signed by seven Hazmat-trained firefighters on the county’s hazardous material team, responders detailed the “lack of proper equipment” on board the county’s CBRNE-1 mobile unit on Nov. 30 when they were dispatched to the rail accident.

The derailment caused the spill of vinyl chloride, and the week-long evacuations of more than 200 Paulsboro households near the scene. The county’s Hazmat team — including the seven Hazmat-trained Washington Township firefighters, and one Deptford fireman — were among the first responders at the scene.

Claudia Gomez, MyFoxPhilly.com:

The firefighters from Washington Township are members of a hazmat team run by Gloucester County. The county is in charge of maintaining the equipment. But the township’s fire chief says several of the meters that monitor air quality didn’t work. The batteries were dead. And he says none of his guys had access to working canister respirators, to help them breathe clean air. Alarming, considering vinyl chloride can cause cancer. “We don’t know what’s going to happen five years from now,” Hoffman said. “Do we have firefighters in our organization who were exposed to this product unnecessarily? Who are going to be sick?”

So Sam Micklus wrote a letter to Gloucester County, saying he was pulling his nine firefighters out of the hazmat team, until things changed. “They really want to be part of this team,” Micklus said. “They’re trained for it, they’re enthusiastic about it. They just no longer trust the way the team’s managed and organized.”

So what’s Gloucester County saying? No official would give Fox 29 an on camera interview. But the county released a statement this afternoon, saying officials are reviewing the matter. And they say despite the withdrawal by Washington Township, the county hazmat team remains adequately staffed in the event of another disaster.

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