NORWICH – Chenango’s Emergency Management Office is inviting officials from Pennsylvania to train firemen on emergencies involving natural gas development.
Pennsylvania is a few years ahead of New York in developing its natural gas industry and its emergency officials will be sharing their expertise with local firefighters.
Earlier this month, the county’s Finance Committee announced firemen were awarded a $15,000 legislative grant for the training.
Senator Thomas W. Libous notified county officials that the grant would be issued from the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control.
“Senator Libous gave the Chenango County Bureau of Fire a $15,000 grant for training. In this money we – along with Broome and Tioga who also received $15,000 each – can use this money to further train our emergency responders above and beyond what is available through the Office of Fire Prevention and Control,” said Emergency Management Director Matthew Beckwith. “The biggest area of concern is the training available for emergencies which happen at a natural gas drilling site.” 
Beckwith said the money will be spent on bringing Pennsylvania’s Lycoming County Emergency Management Director Craig Konkle, who has developed a course called “Wellsite Emergency for First Responders,” here to offer the training.
On April 29, Konkle will meet with Beckwith and emergency management administrators from Broome, Tioga, Cortland, Madison, Otsego and Delaware counties.
On April 30, Konkle will then come to Chenango and offer first responders here a five-hour class including members from ambulance, fire and law enforcement services.
Beckwith said Konkle and others in his region developed the Wellsite Emergency course to aid Pennsylvania emergency crews in responding to natural gas emergencies there. He said the program was so successful that the PA Fire Academy adopted the course and has been implementing similar training across the state.
“The New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control will be meeting with the representatives from the PA State Fire Academy to look into offering this course in New York in the future, but at the moment there isn’t a single training program anywhere in the state that offers natural gas emergency training, yet,” Beckwith said.
Beckwith said this will not be the first time some responders have been exposed to emergency gas well training, saying Norse Energy has provided previous courses. However, he said the program offered by Konkle will be “taking our training to another level.”
Beckwith said his office is working out the details of using one of Norse’s drilling sites for additional hands-on training April 30, following the five-hour course.
“This course will teach responders safety techniques and identify hazardous areas of the drilling site, including machinery and the various hazards to be aware of while operating during an emergency at the well site. I’ve also contacted Norse Energy and asked the company to bring the responders out to an actual drilling site after the class. This way, responders will take the information they learn in the class and relate it to actual operational equipment,” he said.
Beckwith said the training focuses on crews responding to an emergency to treat injuries and contain any damage, but any larger scale industrial accidents, such as a gas well fire, would still be handled by the company’s specially-trained response units.
Emergency officials are already in the process of designating each drilling site with its own 911 address so responders can locate remote locations quickly.
Beckwith said interest is high among Chenango’s approximately 700 first responders, not counting police. He said the office will soon announce an expected class size and registration date.