Cuyahoga County

Together We Thrive

Cuyahoga County Together WeThrive

East Cleveland

ARCO Recycling Fire

2018 Cuyahoga County Emergency Management Summit

SPEAKER’S INTRODUCTION

East Cleveland – ARCO Fire Emergency Event

Chief Mike Celiga – East Cleveland Fire Chief, Incident Commander

Chief Mike Carroll – Lyndhurst Fire Chief, Command Staff for Incident

Chief Dave Freeman – Cleveland Heights Fire Chief, Command Staff for Incident

Assistant Chief Will Anderson – Euclid Fire AC, Command Staff for Incident

Brandy Carney – Director Public Safety Cuyahoga County, Incident Support Command Center and Emergency Management/Emergency Operations Center (EOC)

DISCUSSION POINTS• Cuyahoga County Fire Chief’s Association

• Cuyahoga County Public Safety

• Overview of East Cleveland • Community Profile • Fire Department

• Arco Recycling History

• Local, State and Federal Partners

• Incident Onset and Timeline

• Initial Operational Challenges

• On-scene Operations, Resource Requests

• EOC Operations, Resource Planning and Resource Requests

• Lessons-Learned

• Population: 1,263,154(2013 estimate / 29th largest)(peak pop. In 1970: 1.7 million)

• 5-county region of Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, and Medina = 2,055,612

(largest metro area in Ohio, 32nd largest in US)

• Land Area: 1,246 sq miles (3,227 km²)

• Political subdivisions: 59

CUYAHOGA COUNTY OVERVIEW

Most Populated Cities in Cuyahoga County:

• Cleveland 396,815• East Cleveland 17,843

Smallest City Population:• Linndale 179

CUYAHOGA COUNTY OVERVIEW

60 Law Enforcement Agencies

53 Fire & EMS Response Agencies

CUYAHOGA COUNTY OVERVIEW

CUYAHOGA COUNTY OVERVIEW

• Regional Specialty Teams• HAZMAT, Urban Search and Rescue, SWAT, Bomb Squads, Swift

Water Rescue, Canine Units• Regional Entities

• Regional Transit Authority (RTA), MetroParks, Regional Sewer District, Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), etc.

• Non-governmental agencies• Red Cross, United Way 211, Salvation Army, Food Bank, etc.

Numerous other groups and entities with a role in planning and emergency response in Cuyahoga County such as….

EAST CLEVELAND OVERVIEW

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Community Profile:

• Land area: 3.1 sq. mi.

• Population: 17,843

• Median household income: $19,592 (2011-2015)

• Separate from City of Cleveland

EAST CLEVELAND OVERVIEW

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East Cleveland Fire Department

• 1 FT Chief, 3 Deputy Chief’s, 6 Lieutenant's

• 41 Full Time, 18 Part Time

• 10 Man Staffing per Shift Minimum

• 2 Stations, 2 Ladder Trucks, 2 Engines, 5 Squads, Command Car

• Approximately 6,100 calls responded to annually

ARCO Recycling Facility History

ARCO RECYCLING FACILITY HISTORY

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• ARCO Recycling, Inc. (ARCO) begins a recycling and processing operation in East Cleveland.

• ARCO originally submitted a business plan that indicated construction and demolition debris (C&DD) was to be accepted and processed within thirty days of receipt to separate clean hard fill, scrap wood, and scrap metal. The clean hard fill, scrap wood, and scrap metal were to remain on site temporarily, and all other debris was to be removed and properly disposed of in a landfill.

• Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH) staff regularly conducts site assessments and investigates nuisance complaints at ARCO beginning in June of 2014.

• OEPA issues a Notice of Violation and Director’s Final Findings and Orders to ARCO, ordering them to stop accepting waste and immediately remove all C&DD from the facility.

• The order was the result of many inspections which indicated that the facility was not operating as a C&DD recycler, but rather as an illegal disposal facility. While the facility closed, none of the 230,000 cubic yards was removed. OEPA then asked the Ohio Attorney General’s office (AGO) to pursue a legal remedy.

April 2014

June 2014-2017

Jan 2017

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• CCBH Board passes a resolution and adopted findings of fact declaring the ARCO operations to be a nuisance under Ohio law. The Board issued an order that the nuisance be abated.

• Pursuant to ORC 3707.01, if the property owner or operations owner is unwilling or unable to abate the nuisance, that the Board can take steps to abate the nuisance provided that there are sufficient funds available from other sources.

• The OEPA secures funding to hire a contractor for cleanup. Debris removal operations begin.

May 2017

July 2017

ARCO RECYCLING FACILITY HISTORY

Initial reports of a fire at the ARCO Recycling Facility are received on 10/27/2017

INCIDENT ONSET & TIMELINE

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10/27/17: Contractor reports fire at ARCO; ECFD responds

10/28-10/30/17: CCBH, OEPA, and South Euclid Fire Dept. support ECFD’s initial response

10/30/17: Fire continues to grow, ECFD requests additional resource assistance and mutual aid

10/30-11/1/17: Multiple departments respond, ICP is established at scene, County EOC is activated

OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES

Public Health

• Notorious history of ARCO

• Air quality a constant concern (CCBH and OEPA monitored on-scene continuously; air quality was also intermittently monitored prior to event)

Neighborhood

ARCO

Firefighting/ Debris Removal Coordination

• “hot” debris pulled and placed in separate area for dousing and eventual transport.

• Had to cool pile during operations to prevent spread of fire

OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES

Communications• Interoperability

between disparate systems

• Interoperability between various agencies

OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES

Traffic and Road Closure Coordination• RTA Route• CFD response

considerations

OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES

ON-SCENE OPERATIONS

An ICP was established on 10/30

• Positions filled: • Incident Commander• Operations Section Chief• Logistics Section Chief • Planning Section Chief • Safety Officer

• Communications with EOC (ESF-4) for scheduling/ coordination support of mutual aid

Over the course of 10/30/17 - 11/1/17, eighteen fire departments provided mutual aid

Other resources…Drones, barricades, air sampling, Porta-Johns, food, radios, etc• Multiple

operational periods were supported.

o Beachwood

o Brecksville

o Cleveland Heights

o East Cleveland

o Euclid

o Highland Heights

o Lakewood

o Lyndhurst

o Mayfield Heights

o Mayfield Village

o North Royalton

o Rocky River

o Shaker Heights

o Solon

o South Euclid

o University Heights

o Wickliffe (Lake Co.)

o Woodmere

ON-SCENE OPERATIONS

EOC OPERATIONS

The Cuyahoga County EOC was partially activated on 10/30/17 through 11/1/17

• EOC Staffing included:

• Cuyahoga County Emergency Management (ESF-5)• Cuyahoga County Emergency Communications System

(CECOMS) (ESF-2)• Cuyahoga County Board of Health (ESF-8)• Cuyahoga County Fire Chief’s Association (ESF-4)• Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (ESF-1)

• The EOC processed resource requests and maintained a common operating picture through IAP and SitRepdevelopment and the use of Knowledge Center.

Over the course of the incident, EOC staff prepared 4 Incident Action Plans (IAPs) and 5 Situation Reports.

EOC OPERATIONS

The Cuyahoga County Fire Chief’s Association staffed the ESF-4

desk throughout the duration of the response.

ESF-4 produced the schedules for responding mutual aid.

Did not use State Fire Response Plan for this incident as it

was coordinated through the ESF-5

EOC OPERATIONS

In addition to the fire mutual aid, the EOC received and

facilitated 27 resource requests for items like..

• Radio Cache• Light Towers• Port O Potty’s• Canteening• Barricades• Drone• Incident Command Bus• Communications Vehicle• Diesel Fuel• Bottled Water• Air Sampling• Electricity• Chairs• Portable Heaters

EOC OPERATIONS

Resource Request

Incident Commander EOC Manager

ESF Lead Agency rep

Knowledge Center

ESF Support Agencies (38)Resource to staging area

ICP EOC

EOC

All resource requests followed our general process and were documented using a 213 RR

EOC OPERATIONS

The Good..

• Resource request processing

• Mutual Aid coordination

• EOC Staffing

• Public Works response

• Strong connectivity between ESF 4 and ICP

• Red Cross response

• Activation of appropriate ESF partners

• Drone utilization and imagery

• COM-L involvement and ICS 205

• Use of Knowledge Center

LESSONS-LEARNED

Areas for improvement..

• Operational periods (time of change was challenging)

• Operational period briefings

• Radio communications

• Use of on-scene ICS Forms/ IAP Development

• Staging Area Manager

• Information sharing from ICP to EOC

• Water supply issues

LESSONS-LEARNED

Thank you.

Questions?