Fire Panel Backs List of Chemical Hazards

The Fire Commission on Thursday endorsed the creation of a computerized inventory of about 56,000 locations where hazardous industrial chemicals are stored. The program will be instituted next year if approved by the Los Angeles City Council.

The ordinance, proposed by Councilman Howard Finn, is aimed at preventing a recurrence of the types of problems that faced firefighters April 13 at a chemical warehouse fire in Sun Valley. In that fire, 56 people, including 52 firefighters, were sickened by fumes.

Finn said the measure, the product of two years of research, would provide firefighters at industrial fires with a list of the amounts and types of chemicals stored at the location.

Cost $2.5 Million

The system would cost an estimated $2.5 million, with $1.5 million of that amount already included in next year’s project budget.

Three fire commissioners voted in favor of sending the proposed ordinance to the City Council. One commissioner was absent and Commissioner Hal Kwalwasser abstained, saying the ordinance had not been perfected.

“The way the ordinance reads now,” Kwalwasser said, a listing of water-reactive substances “could mean Kool Aid.”

‘A Rush Job’

Deputy Fire Chief Craig Drummond, who assisted the city attorney’s office in drafting the ordinance, said the measure would be fine-tuned before it was submitted to the council.

“It was a rush job because we wanted to get it here in a hurry on its way to the council,” Drummond said. “I think we can come to an agreement with Commissioner Kwalwasser.”

Although fire officials said Thursday that they expect to include 56,000 locations in the registry at first, Finn has predicted the number may eventually rise to 100,000.

Federal Registry Sought

In another development related to the Sun Valley fire, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) Thursday asked Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Studio City) to push for federal legislation requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to compile a registry of people convicted of hazardous waste violations.

“California authorities have no way of checking on the criminal records of toxic waste violators before issuing a business license or permit for hazardous materials,” Katz said. Authorities investigating the Sun Valley fire said they learned after the fire that the owner of the chemical company, Marianne Pratter, 48, had a criminal conviction stemming from her ownership of a similar company in New Jersey.

The company, the Research Organic & Inorganic Chemical Co. in Belleville, N.J., was the site of a toxic gas leak two years ago. Pratter pleaded guilty to charges of reckless storage of hazardous materials on March 30, 1984, and was fined $15,000 and sentenced to three years’ probation and five months of community service.

“It is outrageous that we have no way of preventing these people from moving their sloppy operations from one state to another,” said Katz.