ICYMI: Water Plant Chlorine Leak Review Provided by Fire Chief J.B. Kimble during Council Meeting

September 10, 2022

Mountaineer News

Buckhannon City Council

Editor's note: This story was originally Published on September 4, 2022.

Buckhannon Fire Chief J.B. Kimble addresses City Council during the September 1st meeting.

BUCKHANNON - During the most recent City Council meeting on September 1st, Buckhannon Fire Department Chief J.B. Kimble reflected on the chlorine leak that occurred on August 26th.

"The crews responded very professionally on all departments. Nobody got hurt. Nobody in the community got hurt. We had to do a quick evacuation. That could have been a serious incident," Chief Kimble said.

Kimble also announced that the department is performing an after action review and are working on plans to make local residents aware of action steps to take in the event of another massive chlorine leak.

"I also want to make everyone aware in that part of town... The water department does not have a fire alarm. If you hear that loud alarm going off, it is a chlorine alarm. It is not a fire alarm/smoke alarm. There is no fire alarm at the water plant. So, if that alarm goes off, the best thing you could do is to look out for the wind sock that is on the water plan to see which way the wind is blowing. That will tell you which way, if any chlorine is coming out of the building, which way the chlorine will float (which is usually in low-lying areas)," Kimble said.

They are currently working on plans (such as reverse 911 calls, a notifying beacon) to immediately notify local residents of chemical leaks in the area.

"Since we never had this issue before, we really need to take this seriously. We had a large leak down there... we can have some problems," Kimble stated.

Watch the entire segment with Council comments and questions here:

Editor's note: This story was originally Published on September 4, 2022.