Exercise prepares Team Incirlik for fuel spills

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Anthony J. Hyatt
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Airmen and civilians from the 39th Logistics Readiness Squadron Petroleum Oil and Lubricant Flight, 39th Civil Engineer Squadron, 39th Security Forces Squadron and 39th Operations Support Squadron merged their resources during a fuel spill response exercise Oct. 5 on the flightline here.

The exercise is a Defense Logistics Agency-Energy requirement for the Department of Defense. DLA-E is responsible for all the fuel that is procured in the DOD, and they contract emergency spill experts to train and evaluate the base's response on an annual basis, according to Master Sgt. Anthony Gaines, 39th Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels operational section chief.

A simulated 3.2-scale earthquake activated the Emergency Operations Center. The EOC is a central command and control facility responsible for carrying out the principles of emergency preparedness and emergency management. Upon conducting facility status checks, POL Airmen discovered a fuel storage tank leak allowing approximately 25,000 gallons of fuel to escape.

Tech. Sgt. Aaron Gagnon and Staff Sgt. James Woods, both 39th LRS, immediately began their response procedures. They notified the proper emergency agencies at Incirlik, stopped the source of the leak and became the first line of containment by placing spill pads and boons in the path of the fuel to prevent its spread.

Within minutes, emergency crews arrived on scene to assess and secure the area while security forces members blocked off the area from incoming traffic.

The first priority for the fire department and civil engineer squadron environmental team was to demonstrate the ability to contain the simulated fuel spill.

"The incident commander made the call to contain the fire by utilizing the foam method," said Senior Master Sgt. Ted Duffield, 39th Air Base Wing Plans and Readiness chief of special projects and wing exercise evaluator team. "His expert guidance was critical in making this exercise a success."

A simulation of standing fuel on the dirt and concrete was cleaned up by local contractors, said Duffield. Simulated contract bids were reviewed for a long-term removal plan to remove defected soil. An estimated completion date of three months was established to clean the simulated spill.

"Typical spills that occur (at Incirlik) are very small in nature, five to 10 gallons, and have no impact on mission and are usually the result of malfunctioning equipment," said Gaines. "This exercise is designed to test the response of the base fuels response team for a very large spill."

The likelihood of this occurring at Incirlik is minimal he said.

Turkish air force representatives observed the exercise.

"This was beneficial in terms of integrating and planning towards future joint exercises with the host nation," said Duffield. An exercise "like this is what brings units together in case a fuel spill really does occur."