parking the truck

[RescueYou]

Oh my goodness. my fellow crew members got into some retarded heated debate over this stupid little question...

you pull up onto a collision scene on a very big hill. one of the vehicles is letting off some sort of unknown gas into the air (let it be whatever you want. smoke, whatever. doesnt matter. it is toxic.) and the wind is blowing steadily up the hill. there are unidentified fluids flowing down the hill from the vehicles. you are in a hilly residential neighborhood so there aren't really wide streets and there are cars parked on the sides. the question was, where do you park the truck? the fumes are blowing up the hill, the fluids are flowing down the hill. the patients seem to be in need of critical care.
they were arguing that you park above or below or a block away, away from the fumes and fluids and just walk. then someone else reminded them that the EMT's safety is the highest priority.

i'm not getting into the debate, but I wanted your inputs.

 

[Epi-do]

If the fumes are toxic, then it is automatically a hazmat scene and I do not park anywhere near it. That is what the glow worms are for. Let them get in there and sort everything out. I will deal with the patients, only after they have been properly deconned.

If I have to pick a location to park though, it would be on the closest cross street that is below the accident, but far enough back to not be in the hot zone. Reason being, the fumes can "spread out" as they are disapating up the hill. The fluids are going to take the path of least resistance and should be relatively easily contained.

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

Hot Zone... Warm Zone... Cold Zone... Where do I want to be at?

Again the question is moot... Scene Safety... It is a HazMat/Rescue/ Fire situation, so unless you are part of a HazMat/Fire/Rescue Team... the answer is always... I will put the truck in reverse and high-tail it out of there and park in the cold zone and wait for HazMat/Fire to arrive and assume control of the scene... The condition of the patient is of little concern to me when compaired to my safety and the safety of my partner/team...

 

[RescueYou]

thanks

I guess I should have clarified. We are a HazMat and rescue crew and fire station 1 is a block down the street from us (with the police station and courthouse between us lol.) What I mean is, we (the rescue squad) have the HazMat truck in our holding bay and are authorized (went through the oh-so-wonderful HazMat training) to drive and use the materials on the truck. I never got into the debate and kept my mouth shut but like you both said, I'd park as close but as safely as possible if only on the rescue truck. I was personally picturing smoke and radiator fluid, but they may have been thinking a little more or less toxic. I'll pass along what you both have said to them. Thanks!

 

[Thindian]

I'd figure that if you HAD to pick either uphill or downhill, and side streets weren't an option (and the situation is HAZMAT clear), you would park uphill and take the fumes as opposed to the fluid. If this is a bad TC, and you're concerned about fire, then the fluid getting to your ambulance can risk your ambulance of serious damage (if the fluids were flammable). Plus, wet ground is unsafe to transport patients on (or generally walk on).

You don't want to treat the patients in smoke (danger to yourself and patient), so you could treat them away from the TC (to the side), and then transport them back to the ambulance. The smoke damage is likely to damage the ambulance anyway. Plus, if the car were to explode, and the chassis were to start rolling, it's going to roll downhill.

This is deductive reasoning though, I'm not speaking from experience!

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

I guess I should have clarified. We are a HazMat and rescue crew and fire station 1 is a block down the street from us (with the police station and courthouse between us lol.) What I mean is, we (the rescue squad) have the HazMat truck in our holding bay and are authorized (went through the oh-so-wonderful HazMat training) to drive and use the materials on the truck. I never got into the debate and kept my mouth shut but like you both said, I'd park as close but as safely as possible if only on the rescue truck. I was personally picturing smoke and radiator fluid, but they may have been thinking a little more or less toxic. I'll pass along what you both have said to them. Thanks!

Okay, that changes things slightly... but only a little... this is still a hazmat... you are still gonna park in the cold zone... gear up in the cold zone and walk into the warm/hot zones... anywhere that the smoke or liquid is or has the potential to move to in sort order is the hot zone, therefore the answer to the question, IMHO, isn't uphill or downhill, but around the block or a mile away depending on how far out the hot zone extends. There should be no, "park as close as is safe" as the hot zone can expand... it is "park as far as is safe". In this case there is no choosing "the lesser of two evils". They are both bad... and no matter what agency you work for (Ambo, Fire, HazMat) you park in the cold zone, report to your IC (or set up an ICP) and then go from there... I take it you are not already wearing hazmat gear when you get on scene... so if you park as close as possible intially, you are probably already in the warm or even hot zone... and already unprotected... Getting as close to the situation on an initial response seems like a cowboy response... IMHO...