Gales Ferry Fire/Haz-mat 03-06-08

Gales Ferry and Ledyard responded to a reported fire in a pump house on the grounds of a industrial facility. On arrival they found a small building with smoke coming from it with a small fire within it. Units also found a Burn victim that exited the building. Crews knockdown the fire. During this time C-25 SBFD was requested, Then after investigating the fire building C-26 Haz-mat was requested for acid leak from a battery bank. A worker was burned after a engine for the fire pumps had a failure and blew a hole in the side of it. Crews contained the leak and turned it over to State DEP.

I was requested to remove some of the photo's by the company see letter below.

Dear Firefighter Ladd,
I happen to come across your blog at http://nlcfirephotos.blogspot.com/ and want to say that it certainly reminds folks about how brave and important firefighters are! Just seeing photos of the apartment building fire and car accidents, says volumes about how important fire departments are to the well being of a community. I know that our plant in Gales Ferry appreciated very much the quick and efficient response to the pump house fire we had in March.

I see that you have photos of that event on your blog as well. This is certainly not a reflection of the high respect we have of you and your department, but I am hoping that you will remove the photos for two important reasons: one, we are in an extremely competitive industry and our competitors routinely scan the Internet for information about us and their other competitors. They can determine how we make our products by the layout and type of process equipment we have, information that can be determined through a photograph. This can undermine the competitive edge we bring to the market and the success of our business and operations in Gales Ferry. Secondly, due to heightened chemical plant security, we do not want photographic information about our site broadly available to the those who might use it to breach our security. That is why we have a policy forbidding photographs from being taken on our property without prior consent.

I hope you understand and if I can explain further, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks again for your service to the community and stay safe!

Best regards,

____________________________________________

Rosemarie Rung
Public Affairs Leader
US Small Sites
The Dow Chemical Company
Phone: 603.424.8024
Fax: 603.424.7015
Cell: 603.440.5379
rlrung@dow.com