SAFER Meeting Minutes
December 16, 2016
SAFER Board Attendees: Pres Fortman, VP Weise, Seely, Quinn,
Santa Fe Springs Fire Department
Santa Fe Springs Fire Headquarters
1010 Meeting called to order – D/C Hayward welcomed SAFER and opened the meeting,. Thanks to Santa Fe Springs Fire Department for use of the facility and Ruth with Santa Fe Springs FDfor morning brunch and coffee.
1015 VP Dick Weise opened the SAFER meeting and led the flag salute and moment of silence to remember our fallen brothers and sisters in the fire, police and military.
SAFER email : SAFER.Members@gmail.com, twitter, facebook etc.
Program: “Burn It Down”- Bomb Factory House
Presenter: Nick Vent – San Diego County Haz-Mat (Retired)
HazMat and Safety Training
Introduced a 2 –Day course that will be offered through DOT in March, 2017 in the LA Area. Flyer to be forwarded to list via email.
Escondido California 1954 Scott
Gardener stepped on a stone while clearing brush which exploded, injuring him. Medics responded and assessed the victim (one was a HazMat FF) and treated the victim. The FD responded PD who took the scene over as a crime scene.
On scene FD turned their radio to all-call and stated “may-day, may-day we need PD assistance” which caused a mass response from all resources in the area.
The issue of jurisdiction arose:
San Diego Sheriff
Escondido PD
San Marcos Fire
County Haz-Mat
6 Mason Jars of unknown material were located – found to be 98% pure organic peroxide (HMTD – Hexamethylene Tri-Peroxide Diamine-). Jars had signs of rust on the jars.
Fusion Center found the tenant was a naturalized US citizen of Russian origin. His wife was still a Russian citizen. Had made numerous trips to Mexico in the prior month and had purchased commercial Castor Beans for unknown purposes. Pack-Rat conditions revealed numerous materials that are pre-curses for HMTD.
5# HMTD was the chemical – explosive used in the London bus bombing.
HMTD:
Citric Acid (Vitamin C)
Hexamine (Sterno)
Hydrogen Peroxide – Commercially / Consumer
Methyl / Ethyl Alcohol
Dissolve Haxamine
Cool
DEH HazMat was responded by SD Co Sheriffs Bomb squad as they left their station as “Tec-Refs”
Objective: to render SAFE the 6 mason jars of HMTD
Video of the individual jars was shown to demonstrate the relative power of the material (HMTD)
Several methods to accomplish this was studied by FBI Bomb experts and HazMat staff. One problem was the remaining HMTD in the soil. The suspect had been dumping his waste in the gravel behind the house. They decided to make a mixture of 5% Sodium Hydroxide and XXX to reduce the Ph
9th Civil Support Team out of Los Alamitos was able to respond and provide assistance to the incident.
DTRA – Defence Threat Reductiion Agency, Fed State EPA and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
DEH pursued mapping and plume predictions.
Bomb Squad utilized Ahura RMX was used to run samples in the backyard
Interview with suspect”George” :
No radiation
No Ricin, Castor Beans only
HMTP referred to as “Puffer Powder”
Hydrogen Peroxide
Sulfuric Acid
Hydrogen Cyanide
Bulk Lead
Fragmentation (Pineapple) grenade molds
Precursors for Nitro-Glycerin
Quantities of PETN
Whole hand grenades
Lab gear used to do chemistry
Equipment to increase potency of various chemicals.
Bulk ammunition of various calibers
“Dye Packs” with $$ attached from multiple bank robberies in the San Diego area.
50 garage door openers
Christmas “ornaments”
Door-Bell was wired to a switch
Camo material
Ammo Boxes full of all kinds of bomb making materials
Home-made Blasting caps, made from shell casings with light bulb filaments imbedded in HMTD. Tested by Bomb Tec’s – all worked
Home-Made Thermite in jars
14# of finished HMTD
Tracking Devices (from Bank robberies)
Police Uniform
Various disguises
Damage to the residence was noted from numerous accidental explosions which occurred as the suspect made various bomb types.
Finding the scene to be so un-safe to continue, Command stopped work and regrouped to determine the safest method of mitigating the hazard. A meeting of all stake holders found some opposition but after fully explaining the rational, finally agreed to the tactic. IAP’s, media notification, necessary evacuations were planned. All accessible evidence was collected to remove as many toxics from the down-stream plume.
They decided to burn the house and all contents
60 Agencies involved: Local, County, State, Federal as limited military as Technical Reference sources.
Video of Jan Caldwell (PIO for SD Sheriffs Dept) was shown. She explained various questions by the media which helped to ease certain concerns of the public. A “Town-Hall” meeting was held.
A Local Declaration of Emergency was issued; State Agencies were tapped to assist in the clean-up and financial issues.
A “Fire Wall” was built to protect adjacent properties. ($20,000)
Used a Web Page to provide info to public
Air Monitoring strategy was developed to document the environment during and after the planned fire out to 2 miles. (Model showed the plume to stay within 75’ of the property). Heat measurement was used to insure the heat level was reached that would destroy the chemicals on site. Smoke went 2600’ straight up during the fire.
HazMat Incinerators run at 1900 degrees, the interior temp of the house was 2600 degrees. A Burn Plan was used to burn the chemicals stored in the living areas then expose and spread into the bedrooms.
Numerous chemicals were targeted for monitoring, including radiological isotopes.
Property Owner was offered $100,000 by the county. She refused and
George Jakubek was given 30 years for the bank robberies
He admitted making exposives
1130
Next Meeting in LACoFD
Vender’s, Manufacture’s and Consultants represented at this meeting:
AllStar and Curtis and Plymovent
Meeting Attendees (Sign-ins)
Agency / Co NAME PHONE # EMAIL (s)
Downey Fire (Retired) Chuck Seely (949) 492-7993 firebiz@att.net
Downey Fire Peter Browne(562) 243-3393 pete.browne@downeyfire.org
PLYMOVENT/AIR EXCHANGE JIM CLEAERY 909-720-7064 jtc1@roadrunner.com
SD County HIRT - Retired Nick Vent 619-778-9500 Hazmatvent@gmail.com
LAFD Ellsworth Fortman 661-645-1810 ellsworth.fortman@lacity.org
CURTIS Scott Marshall 626-840-7589 smarshall@lncurtis.com
Los Angeles County Fire Dick Weise 951 807-1914 rweiselacofd@yahoo.com
Los Angeles County Fire Chris Marangakis (562) 553-2619 chris.marangakis@gmail.com
Fillmore City Fire Keith Gurrola805-558-0932 keithg@ci.fillmore.ca.us
Ventura Co, Fire Robert Szczepanek 805-914-4021 Robert.Szczepanek@ventura.org