How to improve rescue and personal protection capabilities in chemical disasters

With the rapid development of China's socio-economic and urbanization construction, hazardous materials as raw materials, intermediates and products for chemical production continue to increase. A considerable number of chemical dangerous goods are transferred, stored, and transported from ports. Due to poor management and improper operation, various types of fires and sudden accidents are caused, and the nature of accidents and disposal methods are becoming increasingly complex. In particular, some chemical accidents occur. The fire caused by the fire has caused great harm and resulted in many casualties. As a result, the fire fighting work is facing new opportunities and challenges. Facing the increasingly arduous task of firefighting and rescue, the fire brigade needs to keep pace with the times, strengthen technical and tactical training, and constantly improve the actual combat level of firefighting and rescue. However, the fire fighting and rescue work of the current fire brigade has many drawbacks that do not meet the situation and tasks, which has affected the smooth development of the fire fighting and rescue work. Therefore, it is very important to further strengthen the fire safety management of hazardous chemicals and effectively improve the ability of rescue of dangerous chemical accidents and personal protection.

I. Leakage of hazardous chemicals and

Fire characteristics

The hazardous chemicals listed in the “Hazardous Chemicals Safety Management Regulations” include explosives, compressed gases and liquefied gases, flammable liquids, flammable solids, spontaneously combustible items, and flammable articles that are wet, oxidants, and organic peroxides. Drugs and corrosives, etc., have many characteristics of uncertainties: First, many dangerous chemicals will inhale as little as possible poisoning, treatment is not timely, will lead to death, such as chlorine, phosphorus pesticides, etc.; Second, due to many toxic Chemicals are prone to diffusing at normal temperatures, and can cause large-area regional air pollution as the wind drifts. Third, they have fire hazard characteristics, including evaporation, high flammability, explosiveness, fluidity, thermal expansion, electrification, and ease. Oxidation, poisoning, corrosiveness, etc. Once a leak or fire occurs, it will create a great danger, which may result in human casualties, destruction of production equipment, and serious pollution in a nearby environment.

Second, the problems exposed in the disposal of chemical disasters

(1) The basic operational level of fire brigade officers is not high, especially because the nature of dangerous chemicals is not well understood.

In the case of accidents involving chemicals, the physicochemical properties of the chemicals were not known, and they were boldly disposed of, causing firefighters to poison and even die.

(2) The use of barriers is not known in the emergency rescue of chemical accidents.

Some firefighters use the same kind of protective equipment or invariable protection levels regardless of chemical concentration, toxicity, corrosiveness, degree of harm, mission requirements, and environmental factors in handling chemical accidents, resulting in the use of protective equipment. Poor protection or even counter-reactions lead to poisoning and even casualties.

(3) The level of professional knowledge of fire-fighting and rescue personnel is low.

The grassroots fire brigade generally pays attention to the soldiers' business and physical training, and little or no attention is paid to the protection training and theoretical education in the handling of dangerous goods accidents. The failure of many chemical dangerous goods fires today is due to the imperfect fire fighting tactics and their inaccessibility. The grassroots commanders have insufficient knowledge of how to save the relevant chemical substances. The number of chemical dangerous goods is numerous and varies in nature. The methods and measures taken during the disposal of chemical disaster accidents are also different. If there are slight mistakes, there may be explosions. If a commander with poor business encounters a major chemical disaster, the situation is conceivable. For example, for common chemicals such as metallic lithium, sodium, and potassium, the commander knows to use carbon dioxide, foam, dry powder, and sand to extinguish the fire; for rare things like sodium hydride, ethyl dichlorosilane, phosphorus pentasulfide, etc. Burning materials will inevitably lead to direct fire extinguishing with water guns , leading to greater accidents.

In addition, the number of chemical hazards in a chemical disaster accident is numerous, and many have a burning and explosion hazard. Therefore, having a relatively deep chemical foundation is a basic requirement for handling such accidents. In addition, the technological content of equipment is relatively high, and some are directly imported from abroad. It is difficult to control these high-tech equipment without a solid theoretical foundation. Therefore, it is basic work to improve the scientific culture of fighters.

Third, the measures taken to address the above issues

(1) To carry out professional training in disaster rescue and rescue and improve actual combat capabilities.

In daily training, we must strengthen the necessary protective training and theoretical education. The main contents of training education are:

1 . Identify the types of hazards that may be encountered, describe the possible harms, and the possible consequences of not taking protective measures;

2 . To study the types and selection basis and methods of respiratory protection equipment and skin protection equipment;

3 . Study the use and practical operation of respiratory protection equipment and skin protection equipment to ensure the effective use of different types of respirator and the reliable protection of protective clothing;

4 . Strengthen training in field subjects and emergency rescue operations;

5 . Regularly discuss the gains and lessons learned from previous participation in emergency rescue operations;

6 . Learn to match protective masks, check airtightness, and properly wear methods;

7 . Learn to use a variety of portable personal monitoring equipment, including flammable gas detectors and toxic gas alarms.

Not only must the officers and men be organized to learn relevant chemical knowledge, learn the classification and hazardous characteristics of chemical dangerous goods, but also understand and master the common methods of leakage of chemical dangerous goods and disposal methods in fires and explosions, and also focus on commanders at all levels on petrochemical disasters. The procedures and methods for accident rescue organization command and related knowledge training. Improve the quality of rescue workers, increase the scientific and technological content of fire-fighting and rescue operations for disaster accidents, and train a contingent of high-tech personnel with strong operational capabilities to not only complete fire-fighting and rescue operations, but also protect the country’s property and people’s lives, and With the help of new technologies, the safety of firefighters and rescue workers can also be guaranteed.

(2) Be familiar with the use classification of protection grades of protective equipment for chemical accident emergency rescue.

In general, protective equipment used for emergency rescue of chemical accidents can be divided into two categories according to their uses. One is respiratory protection equipment and the other is skin protection equipment. These equipments are different in design, use permission and protection performance. Only when they are familiar with and master the performance and characteristics of these equipment can they really achieve the purpose of protection.

(C) should pay attention to environmental and physical factors.

1 . Heat exhaustion from staff: normal heat dissipation in protective equipment (especially isolated protective clothing) is impaired. In moderate physical work, heat exhaustion occurs. The higher the temperature, the earlier and more often the phenomenon appears.

2 . Personnel fatigue: Wear full-body protective equipment and any level of protection personnel, due to mask breathing resistance, physical exertion and sun exposure, on-site temperature caused by elevated body temperature, and psychological, physical depression and stress conditions will appear tired.

3 . Feeling: The need to fully use sensory or related functions (such as flexible hands, feet, sharp eyes, or acoustic contact, etc.) will reduce operating efficiency to varying degrees after wearing full-body protective equipment.

4 . Self-requirements: Personnel cannot be in full-body protection indefinitely and need diet, drinking water, urine, etc. Therefore, the fire commanding personnel should flexibly adopt appropriate protection levels to protect the safety of the participants.

IV. In-depth investigations and studies to formulate detailed plans

Only by earnestly carrying out investigations and studies and formulating preplans, can we be prepared to make preparations and have a firm grasp in order to effectively handle chemical accidents. The fire brigade should carry out investigations and studies within its jurisdiction to understand and master:

1 . The name, address, and scale of the potentially dangerous unit that has a chemical accident, the type of production (storage, use) of chemical dangerous goods, hazardous characteristics, process flow and technical requirements, the location and quantity of the dangerous source, and the factors that can cause explosion and combustion;

2 . The type and degree of chemical accidents that may occur in chemical hazard source units, the types of fire protection facilities, types of equipment, performance status of these units, the type, quantity, and performance status of protective facilities, and the strength of specialized (part-time) rescue teams. Number of engineers and technicians, division of duties, etc.;

3 . Geographical environment within and near the chemical hazard source unit, such as the internal layout of the unit, the distance from surrounding units, residents' houses, population density, evacuation channels, fire water sources (and their possible contamination), etc.;

4 . After a sudden chemical accident occurs, the target to be defended and the method for defending it are needed within the scope of the maximum accident.

5 . Units with rescue capabilities, such as environmental monitoring, epidemic prevention, medical aid, transportation, meteorology, chemical defense forces, distribution of higher-level chemical hazardous materials units, etc., and notices of contacts, assembling methods, locations, etc.;

6 . Hydrological and meteorological data for dangerous target areas. Based on in-depth investigations and studies, the potential hazards of chemical accidents in chemical units in the region should be evaluated to determine key rescue targets. Then predict and analyze the extent and hazard of possible accidents of key targets and provide basis for formulating preplans.

In addition, the disaster emergency rescue plan shall also include the organization and leadership of the rescue, the force composition and the division of personnel, the procedures and methods for the alarm and response of the accident, the contents, procedures, and methods of the on-site rescue, the procedures, contents, and methods of the rescue command. Contents and methods of safeguards, signals, signs, and regulations for the actions of various professional teams, as well as the contents and requirements of peacetime preparations for rescue. After the preparatory plan is formulated, the emergency rescue drills shall be organized, distributed, and integrated in a timely manner. If the preplans are inconsistent with the actual situation or the situation changes, they should be revised in a timely manner. It should also be noted that there are thousands of chemical dangerous goods. As far as a specific fire brigade is concerned, there are not many opportunities to participate in chemical accidents, as a fire commander. It is also impossible to keep in mind the situation of each chemical dangerous article. Therefore, a database of chemical dangerous goods and chemical accident disposal plans should be established in the fire dispatching command center. It covers leading expert information, equipment type information, preplanning information, and common sense information. A computer should be installed on the command vehicle at the site, and software including information on chemical hazardous materials and chemical accident disposal methods should be included for site extraction and use. .

V. Some matters that should be noted during fire fighting

1 . Petrochemical enterprises are often accompanied by the leakage or release of toxic gases during disaster accidents. The toxic gases are mostly combustible gases. Once they catch fire, their toxicity is greatly reduced, and if they are fully burned, they basically reach a non-toxic state. Therefore, the most violent phase of the toxic gas fire is the period when the toxic gas is the weakest. The early stage of fire and the extinguishing stage are important stages in preventing poisoning. In particular, when the fire is extinguished, the firefighters are often extremely excited or careless after coming to the fire and do not take the necessary personal protective measures to cause human poisoning. For example, during a fire extinguishing process in a benzene plant of a chemical plant, when the fire was extinguished, firefighters failed to take protective measures in time because of the incomplete combustion of benzene, resulting in mild poisoning of six people. What needs special attention here is that when you are fighting for fire, don’t be afraid of being physically unwieldy and don’t wear a respirator. It’s quite dangerous. According to the ever-changing circumstances of the scene, you can take eye, nose, instrument detection, pre-regulations, informants and other methods to determine whether to wear a respirator. When there is no breathing apparatus to extinguish the fire, it is necessary to seize the upper or side air outlet to extinguish the fire and not to put out the fire on the lower outlet as much as possible. If you want to extinguish the fire at the lower tuyere, you should adopt a rotation method to reduce the operating time in the toxic area at the lower tuyere. It is necessary to adopt simple respirator masks, cover with spray water, strengthen ventilation and exhaust ventilation and other measures to reduce the degree of poisoning. At the same time, we must consider measures such as using water guns and blisters instead of manual fire extinguishing to reduce the time for personnel to stay in toxic areas.

2 . In the case of fire suppression, it was found that someone was poisoned or suffocated. Active rescue measures must be taken to prevent misfortunes. When vomiting or dizziness occurs, they must be escorted to a safe place with fresh air, and serious cases are sent to the hospital for treatment. In case of asphyxiation, coma and other poisoning, we must adhere to the principle of immediate rescue on the spot. First of all, quickly check the patient's mouth for foreign matter, the rapid removal of foreign bodies, immediately after the patient to bring Su Sheng, or take mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration and chest massage and other rescue methods, must not blindly sent to the hospital, so as not to delay the opportunity Cause misfortune. When the fire is not completely extinguished, people should take off contaminated clothes, shoes, etc. as soon as possible after the personnel withdraw from the fire to prevent chronic poisoning. In case of extinguishing a fire in a toxic area and not wearing a respirator, a physical examination should be conducted to avoid latent poisoning.

This article comes from the fire arguments and was reorganized and edited by China Rescue Equipment Network.