Hazmat incident goes smoothly in Yuba County
Yuba County, Sutter County, the Yuba City Fire Department, the Sutter County Fire Department, Linda Fire Department, Marysville Fire Department, the Wheatland Fire Authority, Olivehurst Fire Department and Beale Air Force Base.
The first major test of the Yuba-Sutter hazardous-materials response team occurred at Monday's tanker accident on Highway 70, and administrators said Tuesday it could not have gone better.
Hazmat administrators said more than 20 technicians and specialists arrived at the accident six miles north of Marysville and immediately began assessing the situation, which involved a tanker with 8,000 gallons of ethanol that had rolled on its side.
After more than 13 hours, the hazmat team — with assistance from other agencies — helped clean up the accident without a snag, said Scott Bryan, emergency operations manager for Yuba City.
"We came out and mitigated the problem," he said of the team's quick response, "and this was exactly what we hoped for."
Yuba-Sutter's first regional hazmat response team has been training for an event like Monday's ever since the group was established in May, Bryan said.
"It's a good feeling to see everyone come together," he said.
CalFire Battalion Chief Mike Carr, the team's incident commander at the tanker accident, said there was some uncertainty before the accident about how the group would operate. Once they arrived, however, "things really happened as we planned," he said.
The hazmat team was instrumental in safely and successfully cleaning up the accident, Carr said. Personnel provided technical oversight and evaluations and set up zones for safety.
Monday's traffic incident occurred when Charles Bolton, the tanker driver, rear-ended a 1977 Dodge Ram, driven by Jose Brambila, the California Highway Patrol said.
Brambila was taken to Rideout Memorial Hospital with minor injuries. Bolton was unharmed, authorities said.
