At approximately 0330 hours conditions began to deteriorate rapidly.
The Command Post and Staging Area were suddenly enveloped by the gas
cloud and had to be evacuated. Although the Command Post was uphill
from the plant, unusual wind conditions allowed the gas cloud to move
along the ground and envelope the area without warning. The Command
Post was relocated first to a convenience market parking lot, which also
became untenable, and then to a race track parking lot, several miles from
the source of the leak. Reports of strong odors in the occupied residential
areas and downtown portions of Henderson caused the Incident
Commander to begin evacuations of residents in affected areas.
At approximately 0345 hours a state of emergency was declared by
the County Manager, and the Clark County Emergency Operations Center
was activated. Preparations were made to provide temporary shelter for
large numbers of evacuees, using designated schools and the many hotels
and motels in the Las Vegas area. The Red Cross established temporary
shelters in predesignated schools, while the Convention and Visitors
Bureau began to notify its members of the situation.
The large parking lot at the race track provided an area for
assembling resources, in case larger scale evacuations were necessary. Fire,
medical, police, and other resources from several jurisdictions were staged
and organized to respond to changing conditions. The number of agencies
and jurisdictions involved utilized a variety of radio systems and
frequencies. This problem was somewhat resolved by the fact that most of
the fire service command officers and some of the police officials had
cellular phones in their vehicles and these were used to supplement radio
communications. No specific serious problem was caused by these
communications difficulties though the overall operation was not as smooth
as it could have been if integrated radio communications systems had been
available.
The Clark County School District made school busses available to
the Fire Department and 50 off-duty firefighters were called in to drive
them. Each bus driver was provided with an SCBA, in case a
contaminated area was encountered, and two teams were made up with full
crews of SCBA-equipped firefighters standing by to take busses into
contaminated areas to rescue residents in immediate danger. Police
officers were assigned to notify residents in the predicted path of the cloud,
while firefighters were assigned to areas where the presence of chlorine
could be detected. An estimated 2,400 residents were evacuated from their
homes and from local businesses.
Monitoring of the gas cloud was continued by fire department
hazmat teams from Clark County, Las Vegas City, and Nellis Air Force
Base, in addition to county and state environmental health personnel.
Sampling tubes were used to measure the chlorine concentration at ground
level, and the readings were plotted on a map to track and predict
movement of the cloud. A police helicopter was assigned to visually track
the movement of the cloud.
Most of the readings indicated concentrations that produced a
strong odor and respiratory distress but were below levels immediately
dangerous to the life and health of most persons. All hospitals in the
metropolitan area were alerted to stand by for large numbers of patients,
and approximately 250 were examined in emergency rooms. Several police
officers, who were exposed while evacuating residents, directing traffic and
performing other functions in the area, were among those patients. The
majority of the patients recovered quickly when removed from the
contaminated atmosphere. Individuals with asthma and other breathing
problems were severely affected by even minor exposure to the gas and
accounted for most of the hospital admissions.
St. Rose Dominican Hospital, in downtown Henderson, was located
within the affected area, and a decision was made to leave the patients in
the building with the air handling system set to recirculate the interior air.
Air samples indicated that the ventilation system could maintain a safe
interior atmosphere, in spite of the outside conditions. This was felt to be
preferable to risking moving the patients outside into the contaminated
atmosphere. A retirement home in the direct path of the gas cloud was
evacuated.
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