Ann Arbor Welding Supply Fire – Pittsfield Twp. Michigan
On 4/11/2019 at approximately 12:30pm. the Pittsfield Twp. Fire Department responded to a reported explosion at Ann Arbor Welding Supply, located in the 4800 block of Carpenter Road. The Fire Department arrived at the scene to find heavy smoke and explosions heard coming from the back of the building. A 2000-gallon propane tank was found to be on fire, along with several smaller propane, butane and acetylene tanks. Given the fact that there were unexploded tanks in close proximately, an evacuation order was given for the surrounding businesses and residences. Mutual aid was requested by Pittsfield FD to assist them with the fire and evacuation. Ann Arbor City Fire, Ann Arbor Twp. Fire, Ypsilanti Twp. Fire, Huron Valley Ambulance, Washtenaw County Haz-Mat Team, and the Western Wayne Haz-Mat team responded to the request. The Pittsfield Twp. Police Department and Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office assisted with evacuations and traffic control. Pittsfield Twp. Fire Department set up a command post and staging area to coordinate with incoming resources. The Haz-Mat teams set up equipment to monitor the air, and used a drone to access conditions inside the “hot zone”. Once the fire was under control, the decision was made to reduce the area of evacuation to a limited zone around the area of the building.
As a result of this incident, an after-action review was performed concerning overall response of all emergency services at the scene. One of the biggest takeaways from the debriefing process involved communications. Even though the 800 MHz radio system was capable of interoperability between all the responding departments, it was not effectively utilized for that purpose; fire did not know what police were doing, and police did not know what fire was doing. Compounding the problem, police personnel were often communicating by cellular phone, instead of using their radios that allow everyone else to hear what was communicated.
Out of the debriefing, Consortium staff conducted additional radio training with an emphasis on utilizing the full interoperable capabilities of the radio system. Staff reinforced that all departments could have been in better communication by all units using one radio talkgroup, or police and fire using separate radio talkgroups. The key point was for the departments involved to let each other know what radio talkgroup they would be using or have the incident commander assign radio talkgroups; both police and fire could then set their radios to scan the other talkgroup so they would all know what the other was doing. It was also determined that the use of cellular phones during large-scale emergency responses was an ineffective and unreliable method of communications, especially for information that could have been broadcast for others to hear. Washtenaw Emergency Communications Consortium staff continues to strive for the increased, primary usage of the full capabilities that our interoperable radio system supports.
