CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSESAIR MONITORING CARVER

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Introduction: * Each year in America, Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning claims more than 200 lives and sends another 10, 000 people to hospital emergency rooms for treatment * What is carbon monoxide? Carbon monoxide is a odorless, colorless toxic gas. Because of these characteristic, it can kill you before you know it. At initial levels of exposure, CO causes mild effects that are often mistaken for the flu. These affects include, headache, dizziness, disorientation, nausea and fatigue. CO affects every person differently depending on age, overall health and the concentration and length of exposure. * Where does carbon monoxide come from? CO gas can come from several sources: any fossil fuel powered appliance. These include, furnaces, stoves, barbecue grills, fireplaces and motor vehicles. * Who is at risk? Everyone is at risk for CO poisoning. Medical experts believe that unborn babies, infants, children, senior citizens, and people with heart and lung problems are at greater risk

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING SOURCES OF CARBON MONXIDE Gas Stoves Faulty Chimneys Oil/Gas Furnaces Barbeque Grills Gas Hot water Tanks M/V Exhaust

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Carver Fire Department Procedures: * Responses are considered a “Code C” response (go with traffic, lights, no siren) * Upon arrival at location, question occupants of home about sickness of family members, any pets * Initiate a survey of the premise to determine if any area is above 9 PPM as per the gas monitoring meter. Be sure to zero out the meter in fresh air prior to entering the dwelling * If readings are above 9 PPM, evaluate occupants to determine the need for EMS * Readings above 35 PPM require all FD members to don SCBA when entering the dwelling, all occupants removed from the structure and EMS notified to respond for evaluation of occupants

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Carver Fire Department Procedures (cont. ) * Observe all fossil fuel burning appliances, start all and let run, monitor with meter to determine source of CO. * Upon finding the problem with the appliance, shut it down, inform the owner, and advise not to operate same appliance till it has been inspected and the CO issues corrected * Ventilate the building anytime readings are 12 -15 PPM till readings are at acceptable readings

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Introduction to Air Monitoring ● Early days of gas detection, canaries were used to test the air in underground mines ● Today we still use canaries, however the “canaries” we used are often humans (sometimes “Blue Canaries” ) ● Why do we do this? No meters available, personnel not trained to use the meter, wrong type of meter or meter was not working ● Newest challenge in the fire service are incidents which include, gas leak emergencies, hazardous material incidents, confine space incidents and the newest challenge to the fire service, carbon monoxide ● All of these incidents can pose harm to emergency responders, occupants and civilian spectators. I/C must protect his most precious resource, the emergency responder

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Terms used in Air Monitoring ● LEL—Lower Explosive Limits: minimum mixture of combustible gas in the air that will cause an explosion if exposed to any source of ignition. Generally expressed as a range between 0% and 100%. With 100% representing that you have reached the LEL ● UEL—Upper Explosive Limits: maximum mixture of combustible gas that will cause an explosion if exposed to any source of ignition. Limits above LEL will not burn—too rich ● PPM—Parts Per Million: unit for measuring the concentration of gases or vapors in the air; parts (by volume) of the gas in a million parts of air ● Hazardous Materials: substance that poses an unreasonable risk to life, environment, or property, when released from its container ● IDLH– Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health: maximum level of concentration from which one could escape within thirty minutes without any irreversible health effects

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Terms used in Air Monitoring (Cont. ) ● PEL—Permissible Exposure Limit: an exposure limit established by OSHA regulatory authorities. May be a time waited average (TWA), limit or a maximum concentration exposure limit ● TLV-TWA—Threshold Limit Value/Time Waited Average: allowable time weighted average concentration for a normal 8 -hour workday or 40 hour work week ● TLV-STEL—TLV-Short Term Exposure Limit: maximum concentration for a continuous 15 minute exposure period ● Vapor Density—weight of a vapor or gas compared to an equal volume of air; an expression of the density of the vapor or gas. Materials lighter than air has a vapor density less than 1, (methane, hydrogen). Materials heavier than air have vapor density's greater than 1, (carbon dioxide, methane). All vapors or gas mix with air but lighter materials rise as heavier materials tend to sink in low areas, which increase the chance of fire and health hazards

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Why we perform air monitoring ● identifies the hazardous conditions present which allows the I/C to determine the proper response actions to protect: response personnel the public the environment ● to be able to confirm beliefs by the detection of the presence of unknown contaminants, identify and/or measure the level of contaminants and identify any changes in the levels of air contamination if it occurs ● three most common hazardous atmospheres: combustible oxygen deficient toxic

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Characteristics of Air Monitoring Equipment ● to be useful meters must be: portable and rugged easy to operate inherently safe able to provide reliable and useful readings ● when testing take readings: 1 or 2 feet from bottom midway about the height of a person’s head 2 feet from the top ● always purge and clear meter before testing next space assures that no contaminants are still in the sensors

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Carver Fire Department utilizes two types of meters: * On each Engines there is a MSA Solaris 4 -gas Meter * Oxygen, CO, Combustible Gas and Hydrogen Sulfide * Engine One also carries a Bacharach CO Sniffer

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING In the case with the CO Sniffer is also the pump for the MSA Solaris that must be used anytime the area to be checked is greater than 20 feet from the meter

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Locations of the meters: MSA Solaris – Officers Seat Console Bacharach CO Sniffer – Right Front Compartment – Engine 1

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING We will review operating procedures of each meter shortly but basic controls are as illustrated: On Control Page Screens Zero adjustment Reset (zero)

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Alarm Set points on the MSA Solaris Combustible gas indicator * * measures percentage of lower explosive limit (LEL) measures only presence of vapor, not concentration of vapors equipment * alarms at 10% of LEL Oxygen * two conditions trigger the alarm: * too little oxygen (deficient) <19. 5 % * too much oxygen (enriched) >23. 5% Toxic Gas Measurements * * Carbon Monoxide (CO) Readings should be zero, follow CFD procedures for actual readings Hydrogen Sulfide (H 2 S) (Sewer Gas) * Levels at 100 PPM or greater are considered IDLH

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING The Bacharach CO Sniffer just measures Carbon Monoxide and the guidelines discussed at the start of this presentation should be followed

CARVER FIRE DEPARTMENT CARBON MONOXIDE RESPONSES/AIR MONITORING Hands On Training with Both Units