Published: 11/29/2006
Day 6: Chemical Safety Board welcomed by other towns
By Paul LeightonStaff writer
Public safety officials from other communities affected by chemical explosions say the federal agency that was barred from the Danvers site for almost a week was a big help with their investigations.
Officials from North Carolina, Texas and Mississippi said they had no problems with the U.S. Chemical and Safety Hazard Investigation Board, a federal agency authorized by Congress to look into major chemical accidents around the country.
"Not a bit. They were very helpful, actually," said Mark Haraway, fire chief of Apex, N.C., where an explosion at a hazardous waste company forced the evacuation of 16,000 residents Oct. 5. "They kept us apprised of everything. They didn't do anything we didn't want them to."
Until yesterday, Danvers fire Chief James Tutko and state Fire Marshal Stephen Coan prohibited investigators with the Chemical Safety Board from entering the site of last week's chemical plant explosion on Water Street.
Coan said the five members of the federal agency were kept off the site because they are not trained to carry out criminal investigations, which the Danvers case is considered until foul play has been ruled out. A spokesman for the Chemical Safety Board said this was the first time in the agency's eight-year existence that its investigators had been barred from a site in the first few days after an explosion when access to evidence is critical.
Other public safety officials around the country said the Chemical Safety Board has provided valuable expertise in the aftermath of devastating explosions in their communities.
Fire Chief Gerald Grimm of Texas City, Texas, praised the board's investigators for their work after a series of explosions at an oil refinery in his city killed 15 workers and injured about 170 on March 23, 2005. It was the biggest industrial accident in the United States in 15 years, according to the Chemical Safety Board.
"We found them not to be an impediment but of great assistance to the city," Grimm said. "Their report was very conclusive, very comprehensive. They held a number of forums that were well-attended by the public. Of all the things that happened here, theirs was most often in the light of day and therefore the most credible to the public."
Grimm said the Chemical Safety Board investigators had the kind of expertise in industrial accidents that local officials lacked.
