Counties buy mobile chemical monitors

This story was published Fri, Mar 15, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

BOARDMAN -- Mobile monitors that can help detect deadly chemical fumes have been purchased by Umatilla and Morrow counties' Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program.

Maureen Roxbury, spokeswoman for Morrow County's program, said the four monitors, which cost $45,000 each, will provide extra safety for fire and emergency crews.

The shoebox-size monitors attach to the hood of a vehicle and allow emergency crews to know whether it's safe to enter an area that may have been exposed to deadly chemical agents.

The monitors will be used primarily by emergency crews who may be providing backup in a release of nerve agent from the Umatilla Chemical Depot, Roxbury said.

"We aren't sending people into the path of a plume. But if we get a call for help in an area that's undetermined, this enables a task force to know whether it's safe for them to respond to a call for help with a fire or a heart attack during an emergency at the depot," Roxbury explained.

The mobile units have been issued to emergency crews in Boardman, Irrigon, Stanfield and Pendleton.

Also, 11 hand-held monitors were issued to crews in Heppner, Boardman, Umatilla, Hermiston, Stanfield, Irrigon and Pendleton.

 

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