"Hazardous waste storage and disposal facilities must be operated safely for the good of the public and the environment," said Easley. "We cannot allow firefighters to risk their lives by rushing into a facility when they do not know what is stored there. This task force will make sure our emergency responders and the public know where these facilities are located and what is in them."
Doug Hoell, director of the Division of Emergency Management, and Dempsey Benton, chief deputy secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, will chair the task force. Other members include Leah Devlin, state health director; Win Mabry, Mecklenburg County health director; Drexdal Pratt, director of the N.C. Office of Emergency Medical Services; Bradley Harvey, head of the Raleigh Regional Response Team; Johnny Teeters, chief of the Greensboro Fire Department; Marty Zaluski, director of Emergency Programs for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; Viney Aneja, N.C. State University Professor of Environmental Technology; David Thompson, executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, and S. Ellis Hankins, executive director of the N.C. League of Municipalities.
The EQ warehouse in Apex, a temporary storage facility for hazardous materials, caught fire shortly after 10:00 p.m. on Oct. 5. Firefighters arriving on the scene saw and smelled what appeared to be a smoke cloud of potentially dangerous gases and ordered an evacuation of the area around the plant. State air and water quality teams were immediately dispatched to the site and conducted numerous tests during and after the fire to assure that conditions were safe. Residents were allowed to go home on the morning of Oct. 7. It was a week after the fire before plant officials could provide a list of what was stored in the warehouse.
Easley has asked the task force to have a report prepared for him by Dec. 15.
