A truck due to damaged brakes could not stop in time and at full speed at a railway crossing crashed into a train carrying tanks with ammonia. The chemical substance flows out directly to the ground in a poisonous stream, and the driver of the car is seriously injured and locked in the cab.
This is exactly the blood-stirring situation that unfolded today at the base of the fire rescue squad of the Grodno Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Tactical exercises were held here to eliminate the leakage of dangerous chemicals and provide assistance to the victims.
The signal about the incident was received by the dispatcher, and almost immediately rescuers arrived at the scene. Dressed in special chemical protection suits, they took measurements of the maximum permissible concentration of ammonia in the air and went into the danger zone. The fighters worked in two links. One team rushed to the aid of the injured driver to unlock him from the car and hand him over to the medics, the other worked with the tank, closing the ammonia leak. Rescuers with the help of perforated sleeves created a kind of water curtain and did not allow a cloud of dangerous chemical substances to spread to residential buildings. Then they turned the trunk for irrigation and deposited a cloud of ammonia. The Ministry of Emergency Situations managed to eliminate it quickly. At the end, the soldiers, tired but satisfied with the work done, went to the washing point, which is located nearby. Here, the dose rate of the ammonia concentration on clothing was measured with a dosimeter and it was washed from the trunk.
By the way, the exercises are held as part of the implementation of the international technical assistance project "Security on the cross-border Belarusian-Polish territory. Strengthening the capacity of fire and rescue services" under the Program "Poland-Belarus-Ukraine" for 2014-2020. Unfortunately, due to the situation with the coronavirus, the Polish colleagues could not attend the exercises. But the Grodno rescuers found a way out and organized an online broadcast of what was happening.
– Rescuers in practice work out the elimination of emergency situations related to the leakage of dangerous chemicals, as well as providing assistance to victims, – said Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov, deputy head of the Grodno Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. – We transmit information about our actions in real time to our colleagues from the Brest Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, as well as to partners from the Republic of Poland. As a result, a film will be prepared for further training of rescuers in actions during the elimination of chemical accidents.
And it is known that representatives of absolutely all professions need to constantly improve themselves. Here, as they say, forewarned means armed.
– Such exercises will always be effective, because constant training is needed to improve the level of qualification, – said Anatoly Vanchuk, senior rescue chemist-dosimetrist, ensign of the chemical and radiation protection service of the fire rescue squad of the Grodno Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Meanwhile, a lot has been done during the implementation of the project. For example, the closed training complex of the Grodno Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations was reconstructed, as well as sports equipment and equipment were purchased. The total budget of the project was more than 4.5 million euros.
Photos and video by Yuri DUBOVIK
