SPECIAL REPORT: Companies must carefully choose training for industrial fire fighting

Nov. 6, 2006
Today’s oil and gas industry focuses mainly on production. After all, without production, refining, transportation, and distribution of fossil fuels, the industry comes to a halt.

Today’s oil and gas industry focuses mainly on production. After all, without production, refining, transportation, and distribution of fossil fuels, the industry comes to a halt.

But there is another factor that must be considered: How to guard against a fire. A significant fire event can affect how the supply and distribution chain functions. Considerations must encompass how to protect people, the environment, surrounding communities, and company assets.

Working with flammable materials, either as part of day-to-day operations or as an emergency response, is always risky; mistakes may be sudden and complications and hazards can be masked.

Once a problem emerges, the dangers to health, property, and life can escalate rapidly. Even the newest and best-equipped facility is vulnerable to a potential fire. There is no better defense against fire than to plan, staff, and train a response team.

The need for specialized fire emergency-response training is so great that companies that manufacture, transport, store, or otherwise handle hazardous substances in the US are required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to train their employees to detailed standards.

Several training options and credentialing or accreditation factors may come into play. The difficulty faced by industrial and emergency services personnel is to sort through applicable standards and available training curricula and determine the levels of training employees need.

Understanding the different levels of training is crucial. Handling hazardous materials and responding to incidents require a variety of personnel responsibilities. People must understand that their response role is limited by the level of training they’ve received. In short, they must operate within and according to their levels of training and competencies.

One facility that leads in providing both emergency-response training and technical expertise to prepare responders for potential emergency is the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), Brayton Fire Training Field, College Station, Tex. It is one of the best equipped and staffed facilities in the US for such training; several unique facets of the training facility will be discussed later.

Emergency brigades

Four options are available when evaluating fire protection:

  • Mass evacuation: Train only to report fires via the 911 system.
  • Train only selected personnel for incipient fires; i.e., fire extinguisher use or use of hand lines of 125 gpm or less; no “turnout” (i.e., standard fire-fighting) gear.
  • Train everyone for incipient fires.
  • Train an emergency-response team for response in all areas of facility.

In most industrial settings, the last option is exercised for what should be obvious reasons.

Industrial emergency-response brigades or teams are groups of employees who are knowledgeable, trained, and skilled sufficiently to perform basic fire fighting. The size of the emergency organization depends on the type of brigade, number of employees working in a facility, size of the facility, number and type of hazards, and availability of emergency equipment on site.

The brigade can consist of volunteers or assigned personnel. The trend in the industry is toward volunteer brigades with few paid members. The brigade should have members from every work shift and department.

This latter factor is important during emergencies when affected areas or equipment such as tanks, process lines, and towers must be quickly identified. A brigade with a member whose daily job involves working in a given area makes it much easier to identify isolation points and obtain product-specific information.

Transportation emergencies involving railcar and highway containers are designed to simulate situations that could occur during the movement phase of the production process. Fire and spill problems include open dome fires, overfills, line leaks, or separations. Both liquid hydrocarbon spills and propane leaks add to the complexity of the extinguishment.
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Employers who choose to have an industrial fire brigade are mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; 29 CFR1910.156) to prepare and maintain a statement or written policy that establishes the existence of an industrial fire brigade. This document will outline employee responsibilities and actions during emergencies.

A basic organizational structure must be site specific and assign responsibilities to functional positions. This will help establish operational limitations for brigade members. The organizational statement will show how the brigade fits into the company’s emergency-response plan and the limits to the brigade’s responsibilities.

Another important function of the organizational statement is to describe the relationship between the industrial fire brigade and other response organizations, including municipalities, mutual-aid organizations, and contractors.

Regulatory factors

How companies go about protecting assets will vary from site to site and company to company. A company must decide the how, what, when, and where of its fire-fighting plan.

The main factors behind fire-brigade training can be found in OSHA 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1910.156, which requires annual hands-on training on the duties brigades are expected to perform and the hazards they may encounter.

This training includes live-fire training. If the company produces, distributes, stores, or processes flammable liquids, the brigade would be required to train with a flammable liquid. The same holds true for flammable gases. It would be inappropriate to use hay, wood, or other less volatile fuel sources for training.

The same holds true if teams will be expected to carry out search and rescue and interior fire fighting. These are all considerations in fire-training plan.

Three National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards support 29CFR1910.156:

  • NFPA 600-Standard for Industrial Fire Brigades.
  • NFPA 1081-Standard for Industrial Fire Brigade Member Professional Qualifications (Interior/Exterior).

NFPA 1081 ensures basic firefighting needs are covered; i.e., life safety issues. This standard is then broken out into chapters (incipient, interior, exterior, and leadership). Seen as a “road map” of best practices, NFPA 1081 is designed to ensure minimum training requirements and uniformity.

  • NFPA 1041-Standard for Fire Instructor Certification. This standard assists in the development of skills that are necessary for instruction of adults.

Companies must train emergency responders to perform required tasks as set forth under the companies’ emergency action plans. An EAP must describe in detail how the company will respond to the specific hazards and the protocols that will be followed. It is critical that fire brigades train with the guidelines set forth under the EAP and learn to operate within these guidelines. There is no room to “free lance” on an emergency scene.

This multilevel prop simulates a chemical operations fire to teach techniques and coordination necessary when more than one type of extinguishing agent is used on multilevel chemical structural fires. Multiple hose lines (due to use of water and foam for fire control), personal protection, and knowledge of fuel-valve isolation are taught and demonstrated.
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Only qualified personnel should be used for this training. Such personnel can be found in several locations, including accredited fire-training centers. The training chosen for the brigade must be performance-based with hands-on activities. These activities need to be based upon job-performance requirements of specific disciplines, such as exterior or interior fire fighting.

Other excellent tools to measure the effectiveness of training exercises are postincident critiques and notes taken during debriefings. Both of these tools provide effective measures of training effectiveness and help determine future training needs.

Response-team training

There are several training considerations once a fire brigade has been established, including:

  • What will be an appropriate size of the brigade?
  • In what shifts or times will the brigade respond?
  • To what level will the teams be trained?
  • How, when, and where will this training occur?
  • What is the expected outcome of this training?
  • What duties will the members be expected to perform (interior, exterior, leadership)?
  • To what hazards will the team respond?

Training relies upon three factors: type, amount, and frequency. These questions must be thoroughly discussed with management. One caution must be emphasized: If the decision is to train on live burns twice a year, this commitment must be kept because company management will establish a written policy outlining employee responsibilities and actions to be taken during emergencies.

This decision will dictate the type of training program that must be established to ensure the employees are properly trained in the duties expected of them. This requirement is spelled out in OSHA 29CFR1910.120.

The functional elements of the brigade are further outlined in NFPA 600 and 1081, which detail expected functions of a brigade and discuss organizational duties.

The current trend in emergency-response training programs is certification-based training. Certification means that an individual has been tested by an accredited examining agency against a body of clearly delineated material and found to meet or exceed the minimum standard.

Certification provides the individual with the opportunity to test skills and knowledge against peers from all types of fire departments and fire-service agencies. Examinations are based on widely available NFPA standards; in the case of industrial fire training, this means following NFPA 600, 1041, and 1081 guidelines.

Among the more popular and technically sound approaches to certification-based training is the National Board on Fire Service Professional Qualifications (NPQS), commonly referred to as ProBoard. Another popular organization is the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC).

ProBoard operates under the direction of a board of directors from national fire-service organizations. It issues accreditation to those agencies that test to approved fire-service standards. Accredited agencies are responsible for conducting certification-based training and testing and issuing certification to individuals who successfully complete the testing and skills demonstration process.

Today, accreditation is issued for certification in 67 levels of 16 standards of competencies related to the fire service. Individuals may become certified in as many disciplines as they desire.

Fire brigades are improved in a variety of ways by having nationally certified members. First, the respect, reputation, and prestige of such professional organizations will expand in proportion to the number of its certified members. These brigades will have officers and civilian professionals whose credibility is unquestionable.

Second, a brigade’s training program will improve as higher goals are secured through the acceptance of the standards. As a result, such training programs will be able to measure themselves as part of a national fire-training system.

Since 1987, TEEX is one of the few locations in the US where students can learn about the properties of LNG and how it burns, as well as receive hands-on practice with techniques proven to extinguish an LNG fire.
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Third, training programs that adopt ProBoard certification will minimize the inconsistencies that span other hazardous-material training approaches. When employees are training to a certain level of competency under ProBoard guidelines, they have clearly defined missions and tasks to follow.

NFPA 1081 addresses exterior, interior, and leadership disciplines. This provides a clear pathway once companies have determined to what fire hazards and locations they are going to require brigades to respond. Professional standards are particularly important in high-risk industries such as the fire service and other response organizations.

The widespread adoption of the accreditation and certification offered by ProBoard will go far toward ensuring that this trend continues to the benefit of everyone involved. Certification from a nationally accredited agency is a statement of success for any response organization.

Training-service providers

Regardless of who is selected as training provider, a company must ensure that a few fundamental needs are met.

Start by looking at the safety aspects of the facility. These include not only safe training but the facility’s condition maintenance. All must promote the safety for the team.

Then, consider what type of accreditation, certification, or professional creditability the training provider offers. The provider must not be some “fly-by-night” outfit. No matter how good the training records, there is always the possibility of needing to go to the service provider for records or proof of training: “Is my service provider going to be in business next year or even 10 years from now?”

TEEX

Training providers vary from small companies to the largest fire-training service provider in the world. Both are capable of providing fire-based training to its clients. The largest and most diverse fire-training field in the world is the Brayton Fire Training Field, part of the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) in College Station, Tex.

TEEX offers training that’s realistic, large-scale, and hands-on. Brayton’s 132 specific training stations offer emergency responders instruction not only in firefighting, but also in rescue, emergency medical services, hazardous materials, pipeline emergencies, marine, LNG fire fighting, aircraft fire fighting, and emergency management.

Located adjacent to the Texas A&M University campus, the 120-acre facility attracts more than 45,000 emergency responders from all 50 US states and more than 45 countries each year.

The Brayton Field builds upon a long legacy of TEEX’s fire training services. In 1929, the State Firemen’s and Fire Marshal’s Association of Texas selected Texas A&M for a permanent fire school, with the first annual school a year later attracting 196 fire fighters from 76 Texas cities and towns for 2 days of drills and ground practice.

TEEX has completed a 2,300-ft belowground pipeline with multiple aboveground connections to train emergency responders to manage and mitigate pipeline emergencies. The project, which can leak both liquid and gas, was constructed with input from the world’s leading pipeline industry representatives.
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The success of the first school prompted the Texas Legislature in 1931officially to recognize the A&M fire school as an “imperative public necessity.” Under direction of Col. H.R. Brayton, a chemistry professor, the annual fire-training schools quickly outgrew the A&M campus and nearby Hensel Park in College Station.

In 1960, TEEX took 26 acres of dusty scrub brush west of the A&M campus and constructed the present Brayton Fire Training Field. The 1960s saw unprecedented demand for TEEX’s fire-fighter training, particularly for industrial brigades and Spanish-speaking fire fighters. During the 1970s and 1980s, TEEX experienced new records in annual school enrollment as Brayton quadrupled in size to its current 120 acres.

Today, full-scale props ranging from aircraft fuselages to oil refineries, training, and instructors combine at the Brayton Fire Training Field to form the world’s largest and most comprehensive institute for emergency-response training. The combination props and NFPA ProBoard certification classes fits into the category of a “qualified” service provider.

Training measurements

The need to quantify the money spent on training vs. the benefits received holds for any new process put into place or other cost-saving measures implemented. The value of emergency response-team training-in terms of traditional return-on-investment analysis-is sometimes difficult to measure because, until an event, the teams are just good insurance to have around.

Companies need to have the most qualified, best trained teams that are seldom if ever used. With no emergency events or business interruptions, they can continue producing products and making money. Emergency teams plan and train for potential emergencies but do not staff for worst-case scenarios. Surely the impact of an emergency event can be reduced and production can commence by having a well-trained and equipped fire brigade on site.

Many companies cannot rely on mutual-aid agreements, municipal fire departments, or third-party contractors solely to be the front line of defense. Fire events are often fast acting, thus the need to train employees to some level of competency.

Impacts from a fire event may be devastating to a small to medium-sized company; it has the potential of putting such companies out of business. The same holds true for large companies.

If a company has too many fire-related emergencies, regulatory agencies can make it very difficult for that facility to continue to operate. A company needs to look at all aspects of cost benefits derived from training a fire brigade, not just initial startup costs.

The cost savings of staffing a brigade are indirect, thus making them difficult to quantify. Some factors that need exploring are cost savings that could be measured by reduction in insurance premiums, reduced unit down time due to fast actions taken by a team, and increased awareness of potential problems.

New developments

Two new training disciplines are going to be hot topics for years to come: liquefied natural gas (LNG) fire fighting and pipeline emergencies.

LNG terminal instillation along the Gulf Coast will increase substantially over the next few years. Companies will have to train and respond to an entirely new set of hazards presented by LNG emergencies including extinguishment techniques, technologies, and media.

The LNG program available at TEEX aims at frontline emergency fire supervisors and responders, LNG project coordinators, and facility managers who may be faced with an escape of LNG vapor or liquid, although the chances of such an occurrence are low. Students have come from across the US, and Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Spain, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Indonesia, UK, Netherlands, France, and Qatar to take advantage of the LNG emergency-response training available at TEEX.

In 2004, with the support of one of the world’s largest energy companies, BP PLC, TEEX began upgrading the LNG training area and curriculum. The existing LNG training prop was removed and a four-phased construction project began. The final touches on the LNG facility upgrade were completed in April 2006 (OGJ, Aug. 28, 2006, p. 15).

TEEX has also announced the offering of a new pipeline-emergencies course. The course is held in cooperation with the US Department of Transportation and the National Association of State Fire Marshals. This course relied heavily upon recognized industry leaders in the pipeline business for course development and prop design.

These industry representatives deal daily with pipeline operations and response and are in tune with the pipeline industries’ constantly growing infrastructure. It is the goal of this course to provide emergency responders, local officials, command staff, and other potentially involved parties with the knowledge and tools to manage and mitigate pipeline emergencies successfully.

The pipeline-emergencies course is designed in a modular format. The entire course consists of a 40-hr program that addresses pipeline awareness (8 hr), pipeline operations (16 hr), and pipeline-emergency response (16 hr). During the awareness module of this course, regulatory factors will be addressed as well as causes of pipeline incidents, prevention of pipeline emergencies, and team-based exercise.

The second module of this course is designed to inform participants about both gas and liquid pipeline operations. This includes both transmission and distribution systems and addresses below and aboveground equipment. Also covered in this section are pipeline safety programs, inspection, mapping systems, equipment identification, pipeline markings, and many other critical factors involved in pipeline operations.

The third and final module of this course covers pipeline emergency response. Participants will use the Incident Command System (ICS) operating under guidelines of the National Incident Management System (NIMS), develop Incident Action Plans, manage resources and manpower, and-above all-bring all this knowledge together during responses with real-world pipeline training props.

The TEEX pipeline project consists of a 2,300-ft belowground pipeline with multiple aboveground connections where training props have been constructed. There are seven aboveground stand-alone pipeline training props designed to enhance the responders’ abilities to deal with emergencies they may encounter during daily activities.

These training props have the ability to leak both liquid and gas. This flexibility to have material-specific leaks is a very important in the training for potential emergencies and products.

These training props consist of metering stations, dewatering tanks, pig launching and receiving stations, mainline closures, creek crossing, and a soon-to-be-constructed multiuse chemical complex with a truck-loading terminal. These props aid in developing both recognition skills that pipeline responders must posses and response endeavors to pipeline emergencies.

Pipeline-response training is a much-needed training tool that will be useful, especially considering the age of the nation’s pipelines.

The author

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Gordon L. Lohmeyer ([email protected]) is the private sector supervisor for Texas A&M University’s Texas Engineering Extension Service/Emergency Services Training Institute. Before employment with TEEX, he worked for Texas Petrochemicals LP as an emergency-response coordinator for the company’s Houston, Baytown, and Lake Charles plants. Lohmeyer is a certified fire-protection specialist and holds a BS from Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Tex.