(#2)
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Emergency responders catch heat over crash notifi cation
St Johns Review PO Box 83068 Port. OR 97238
#2-Jan. 29, 2016
At the January 6 Linnton Neigh-
borhood meeting, Portland Bu-
reau of Emergency Management
(PBEM) and fi re department rep-
resentatives reviewed the emer-
gency notifi cation process during
the December 13 semi truck/rail-
car crash near the St. Johns bridge
ramp on Hwy. 30. Currently, the
Bureau is working with Linnton
residents on a Hazard Mitigation
Plan, making the subject particu-
larly relevant.
The onsite Incident Command-
er at the accident, the chief deci-
sion-maker, based the size of the
notifi cation radius on the surmised
burning chemicals and on the wind
speed and direction. All that infor-
mation was directed to him on the
way to the fi re according to the
reps. Based on these factors, he
judged the shelter-in-place notifi -
cation should be 1/2 mile radius.
Unfortunately, the map show-
ing the radius indicated it reached
very little of St. Johns where the
smoke was heading. Notifi cation
only touched on the bluff near the
Benson mansion, with maybe 100
households included and then only
went to residents with landlines.
Even more disturbing is the fact
that the original call mistakenly
pinpointed Siltronic as the loca-
tion of the crash. If the location
report had been accurate, no resi-
dents in St Johns would have been
notifi ed because the 1/2 mile radi-
us wouldn’t have reached beyond
the river.
Also disturbing was the meth-
od used to appraise the number of
Linnton residents near the crash
site. The Incident Commander was
said to have consulted a Google
map and seeing mostly thick tree-
tops, assumed there was no need to
send an alert beyond a half-mile.
i nsiDE t His i ssuE :
p aGE 2: L EttERs to tHE E DitoR
p aGE 3: M ain s tREEt B EGinninGs : p aRt ii/
c oMMunitY E vEnts
p aGE 4 & 5: L EttERs c ontinuED
p aGE 6: p oLicE & F iRE R EpoRts /o BituaRY
p aGE 7: c RossWoRD p uZZLE
P hoto of
the W eek
The contest is back! Send in
your photos of the St. Johns
Bridge to be entered into
the 2016 contest. Winner
receives $100. See rules on
page 2.
The Masthead’s photo in this issue (#2) was
taken by: Ginger Girl PDX. She was able to
capture the bridge lights and snow on the trees
during January’s snow event.
The Photo of the Week (right, #2A) was taken
by Dr. Melissa Bartoszewski when the “Bubble
Man” was entertaining at Cathedral Park.
515-840
Linnton residents pointed out that
there are houses under the trees
and there were
indeed
alarmed
residents closer
to the crash than
estimated. Resi-
dents questioned
notifi cation pro-
cess glitches and
expressed concern
in the event of a
more serious acci-
dent.
Darise Weller of
Linnton pointed
out that if the train
cars exposed to
fi re had been car-
rying something
more volatile such
as crude oil or eth-
anol, as is com-
monly found in
railcars near Hwy.
Photo 2A: Melissa Bartoszewski
3 0 ,
t h e
explo-
sions
a n d
f i r e
could
have
been
far more serious, possibly engulf-
ing the nearby natural gas tank and
causing a far more massive explo-
sion up to a fi ve miles radius. This
got many meeting participants
wondering how notifi cation would
occur in a larger accident.
According to the emergency
responders the accident sequence
was:
8:49am - 911 receives calls about
the crash
8:54am - Portland Fire & Rescue
is on scene
Continued on Page 6
“Responders”