Saturday morning and early afternoon on July 16, 2011, nine different fire departments came together for ethanol fire training. Hosted by Maple Park-Countryside Fire Protection District, sponsored by Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway and coordinated by the Kane County and the DeKalb County Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC), the 51 attendees received classroom instruction on ethanol and then experienced and practiced putting out actual ethanol fires during an exercise drill. The exercise drill consisted of communications, response, arrival, National Incident Command System, mutual aid box alarm system, staging, flowing foam, extrication, safety and other related activities. Both LEPCs were able to exercise their respective Chemical Emergency Response Plans.
The fire departments participating were Cortland, Elburn, Malta, Maple Park-Countryside, Kaneville, Kirkland, Sandwich, Somonauk and Sycamore. Major contributors to the training and exercise were Sycamore Speedway, BNSF Railway, DeKalb Mechanical, Illinois River Energy, Ideal Industries, PCCR USA and both the Kane Co. and the DeKalb Co. LEPCs.
All meetings of the DeKalb County LEPC are scheduled to be held at the DeKalb County Highway Department, 1826 Barber Greene Road, DeKalb, Illinois 60115 in the conference room on the west end unless specified otherwise. There are four regular meetings at 6:30pm on the 3rd Monday of January, April, July and October of every year. All meetings are open to the public and the October meeting is designated specifically for receipt of public comments on the emergency plan. Sub-committee meetings, Special meetings and Ad Hoc meetings are scheduled on a need be basis. For more information contact Frank F. Beierlotzer, LEPC Chairperson at ffb66@juno.com.
Click Here To Submit A News Tip Or Story