Living under a cloud of fear

IT was the day the lights went out over Teesside. A huge plume of black smoke hung over Europe's largest concentration of chemical plants, blotting out the sun in scenes reminiscent of the Iraqi burning of oil wells to cover their retreat in the Gulf War.

Around 200 firefighters and 49 fire engines spent 12 hours battling the blaze, with the Cleveland brigade bolstered by reinforcements from Durham, North Yorkshire and Humberside, and extra foam brought over the Pennines in a convoy of tankers.

The fire in the BASF plant on the Wilton site, seven years ago this month, was the biggest on Teesside since the Second World War. And it is on Teesside that a national firefighters' strike will cause most concern.

Despite the downsizing of recent years, Teesside retains a network of chemical complexes, at Wilton, North Tees and Billingham, as well as the nuclear power station at Hartlepool. While the prospect of relying on the Army's Green Goddesses may be worrying enough for most people, for those living near these sites the possible effects of a major incident during a strike are almost too horrific to contemplate.

"Of course it is causing concern, but we have got to be pragmatic, and if we are faced with this situation we have got to do the best we can to manage it and contain it," says David Hay, chief emergency planning officer for the four Cleveland local authorities.

"Obviously, there is a concentration of petrochemical industries in Teesside and the prime responsibility for their safe running is on the operators themselves. They will have to demonstrate to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that they can still carry on the safe operation, and that means they will have to carry out risk assessments in the light of the new circumstances.

'The alternatives to the fire brigade which have been brought in by the Government in no way could possibly replace what is being lost, and that is clearly a concern."

The first line of defence if an incident were to occur is the on-site firefighting teams, run at all three chemical sites by Enron Teesside Operations Limited (ETOL), which is not involved in the industrial dispute.

An ETOL spokesman says that during the strike they will only respond to emergencies involving customers with whom they have arrangements. But while this may be adequate for some incidents, they will be deprived of the back-up service normally provided by the regular fire brigade. And according to David Hay, the absence of this back-up could become hugely significant in the event of a repeat of the BASF fire.

"Obviously, that would create enormous difficulties for all involved, and the capacity of the on-site resources would be stretched to the limit," he says. "I'm not in a position to say they couldn't cope, and as long as the HSE and the operators are content, I have to assume that they are able to cope."

Ian Click, chief executive of Teesside Chemical Initiative, says safety procedures have been tightened considerably since the BASF fire, but concedes that the potential consequences if anything does go wrong are serious.

"The chemical industry is one of the safest industries there is. If incidents happen they tend to be more spectacular, although the actual number of injuries and loss of life is very low," he says.

"During the strike periods, we will be making sure that the risks are kept to an absolute minimum, which is in line with the normal policy in any case.

"We know that we won't be getting the Cleveland Fire Brigade back-up, and we will need to look at whether the facilities in-house are adequate, and I'm sure the chemical companies will have addressed these issues. We would not want to show any complacency - this is being taken seriously, but there is a danger of over-stating the additional risk."

At Hartlepool's nuclear power station, contingency plans have been drawn up for the strike period, including identifying potential additional risks and minimising unnecessary activities, according to a British Energy spokeswoman.

"As far as we are concerned, the fire brigade provides professional back-up to support our on-site emergency response teams, and we're as well covered as can reasonably be expected."

As well as the chemical plants, contingency plans have also been drawn up to cover other areas of the fire brigade's responsibilities, including chemical spillages on the roads, says David Hay.

'We would normally rely on the emergency services, and in particular the fire brigade, to remove spillages from the highway. Although we don't have a statutory duty to remove them ourselves, we are not desirous of seeing the roads closed off, so we will bring in outside assistance, and we will have experts to come in and remove it for us," he says.

During the last firefighters' strike, in 1977, the number of people killed by fires was not substantially higher than normal, and, although the prospect of a major incident may be frightening, for many people on Teesside this has been a fact of life for some time, strike or no strike.