Santa Paula Hazard Spill
I focused my research on the hazard spill that occurred in Santa Paula on November 18, 2014. For those of you who don’t know, I actually live in Santa Paula and thus I was really interested in examining this event.
On November 18, 2014 at 3:45 a.m. there was a spill of approximately 1,000 gallons consisting of an unknown liquid organic peroxide. The spill was a result of a leaking truck which then later exploded. At the time of the first explosion there were two people injured. In response to the explosion, firefighters responded and they noted that when they stepped on to the dry area, in which the chemical had spilled, their rubber boots began to melt as well as the tires from their fire truck. As a matter of fact one of the fire trucks ended up exploding as a result from the mysterious chemical. At this time the Ventura County Geoff Dean declared the situation as a local emergency and ordered for an evacuation plan to be made. The evacuation plan consisted of any people living within a one mile radius, and people living within a 3-mile radius were asked to remain in their homes with all their windows and doors closed. As a result of the evacuation, the American Red Cross created a temporary shelter on Main St.
As for the 44 people that were exposed, they were all sent to VCMC to be treated. Unfortunately, this led to further explosion of the mysterious chemical; not only were the people coming in exposed, but the healthcare workers as well as their patient exposed as well. Despite the help of many individuals (public health workers, environmental health workers, fire fighters, and etc.) none of them were able to identify the chemical or an antagonist to stop all chemical reactions from occurring.
Overall, I personally believe that this event was very eye-opening for a lot of people, like myself. I was really happy to hear how many people actually responded to this event. Santa Paula is a fairly small city and thus often times I feel like when something happens in Santa Paula it is not really a big deal; but this definitely proved me wrong. I think, because of such event local hospitals have now implemented a response team if such event ever were to happen again. The reason why I say this is, because at the time that this occurred I was in my leadership rotation and thus I saw how Ojai Valley Community Hospital implemented a plan if ever such event was to happen again.
References:
Small fire ignites in chemical spill area outside of santa paula (2014). Ventura County Star. Retrieved from http://www.vcstar.com/news/local-news/santa-paula/small-fire-ignites-in-chemical-spill-area-outside-santa-paula_98585274
Quednow, C.V. (2014). Santa paula chemical explosion causes injuries, evacuations, and road closures. Ventura County Star. Retrieved from http://www.vcstar.com/news/local-news/ventura/officials-working-to-decontaminate-people-at-vcmc-exposed-to-substance-in-santa-paula-explosion_29956958
