Finn Anti-Disaster Formula : Fire Panel Will Vote on Chemical Inventory Plan

The Los Angeles Fire Commission will vote next week on a proposal by City Councilman Howard Finn to institute a massive, computerized inventory of all hazardous industrial chemicals in the city, aimed at preventing a recurrence of the type of problems that faced firefighters at a chemical warehouse fire in Sun Valley.

Finn, who represents the northeastern San Fernando Valley, where the warehouse is situated, introduced the ordinance before the April 13 fire, saying it was the result of two years research and talks with firefighters and leaders of industry and environmental groups. The measure would create a system to provide firefighters at industrial blazes with a quick warning that a burning building contained hazardous materials and list the type and amount.

‘Highest Priority’

“Obviously, we’d give the highest priority to registering places like the Sun Valley company,” he said Thursday.

In the blaze at the Sun Valley plant, 56 people, including 52 firefighters, were sickened by fumes. Two days later, a security guard exposed to fumes from burned chemicals was hospitalized for treatment of nausea.

Fire Department and Los Angeles County Health Department officials have complained that, although they knew the burning warehouse contained hazardous chemicals, they did not know just how dangerous the site was. They were unaware of the presence of deadly cyanide until tests found it in runoff water from fire hoses, health officials said.

Proposal’s Approval Predicted

The proposed ordinance was presented to the fire commissioners this week and held for revision of “relatively small wording matters” by Finn and the city attorney’s office, according to Fire Commissioner Hal Kwalwasser. Finn and Kwalwasser said all the commissioners voiced support for the ordinance and predicted it would be approved by the commission next week and forwarded to the City Council Planning and Environment Committee.

Finn’s ordinance would require all companies that possess hazardous chemicals to register the type and amount with the city. The total number of companies that would have to be registered is unknown, Finn said. But, he said, officials would first seek to register those companies with the most hazardous chemical supplies, a group he estimated would number at least 50,000, “and probably more like 100,000.”

He said local officials need the data from such a registration program to head off disasters such as the chemical plant leak that killed 1,700 in Bhopal, India, and a gas tank explosion outside Mexico City that took at least 452 lives.

Law Could Prevent a Bhopal

“If our ordinance were in effect, we could prevent things like Bhopal, Sun Valley and Mexico City,” he said.

To handle the paper work if the ordinance passes, Finn said, the Fire Department would need a $2.2-million computer system and a staff of 42 in the first year.

About $1.5 million in start-up funds have been requested for the computer system in Mayor Tom Bradley’s proposed budget, he said.

Finn, who is chairman of the City Council Planning and Environment Committee, said he will send the ordinance back to the full council for a vote the day after his committee gets it.

The fire at the Sun Valley company probably did not increase the ordinance’s chance of passing, Finn said, only because “it would have passed anyway.”

But he added that the fire “did stimulate public interest . . . and it might help a bit with the other council members, to make them understand the urgency.”

Studying Financing Methods

Finn said he is looking into ways of financing the program, including imposing a registration fee on companies and seeking help from the Superfund created by the federal government to deal with toxic-waste problems. He said he hopes that the federal government eventually will tax all producers and importers of hazardous materials and distribute the money to local governments for waste-control programs.