Firefighters, hazmat teams, public safety and emergency management personnel, and management personnel from Artesia, Carlsbad, Riverside and Loco Hills took part April 9 in a training course at the Regional Training Center in Carlsbad intended to better prepare the first responders to handle a common oilfield emergency.
Responders learned how to identify common risks associated with oil well blowouts, how to predict hydrocarbon behavior, how to determine the probability of a safe and successful mitigation, and even how to fill out the paperwork that accompanies these types of incidents.
“We learned what we are responsible for when it comes time to control these blowouts,” said Chief Rick Burks of the Artesia Fire Department. “We have to know how to make sure everything is safe.”
The course was sponsored by Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Resolute Energy Corporation, Apache Corporation, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, and Concho Resources Inc.
Course content also included the causes of blowouts, rigs and their components, tactics for those first on the scene, suburban interface risks, response methodology, well control scene management, and case histories.
