Safety forces trained to handle meth lab, fire [Negley, OH]

[yfdgricker]

Safety forces trained to handle meth lab, fire
Story by TOM GIAMBRONI, Journal Staff Writer, in the Lisbon Morning Journal on 10/16/2006.

NEGLEY — The Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office held a training exercise Saturday that involved accidentally setting fire to a home that housed a meth lab.

The exercise was held in conjunction with the East Palestine and Negley fire departments and East Palestine’s hazmat team.

The exercise was held 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at a vacant home scheduled to be razed along state Route 170, about halfway between Negley and Fredericktown.

Sheriff David Smith said the fictional scenario involved having his deputies attempt to serve a search warrant on the residence and, after meeting some resistance, the special response team (SRT) was called in for assistance. The SRT then used flash-bang grenades to gain entry, but the grenades touched off an explosion because it turned out the house was a meth lab. The explosion ignited a fire that soon had the whole house engulfed.

“These meth labs are set up in homes, trailers and buildings and are very explosive. The chemicals involved are very sensitive, and the slightest combustive agent mixed with them could set off an explosion and fire immediately,” Smith said.

The exercise provided a certain level training for each unit involved: the deputies and SRT in gaining entry to a protected home that serves as a meth lab, and the fire departments and hazmat teams in dealing with a fire and dangerous fumes coming from the pretend meth lab fire.

“You can’t say the scenario will never happen here because we’ve found three meth labs in the county in the past three years,” he said. “That’s why this ... training is vital for the people who might find themselves in this situation.”

tgiambroni@mojonews.com

[yfdgricker]

Inadvertent 'victims'
Story and Photo from the Lisbon Morning Jornal on 10/16/2006.

Morning Journal-Patti Schaeffer

Two Negley firefighters lie unconscious in a farm lane after exposure to a vapor cloud from a meth lab that exploded in the house fire started by the Columbiana Special Response Team as they were trying to remove a person from the house who shot Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Haugh who was trying to serve a warrant ... so goes the scenario that brought together personnel from the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Department, the Emergency Management Association and the Negley Fire Department during a training drill along state Route 170 Saturday.