A free educational tool built around this week’s chemical release in Toledo is now available to the public. MIRA Safety, an Austin, Texas-based maker of protective equipment, announced on October 22 the launch of its Industrial Disaster Simulator, an interactive chemical spill simulator that illustrates how an industrial or tanker release might affect air and nearby waterways — and the first scenario available covers the Toledo area.
The launch follows the release that began on the night of October 20 in Toledo, when, according to the Associated Press account cited in the announcement, a ruptured tank at a chemical trucking facility began leaking glycidyl methacrylate and sent a white plume into the air for more than 14 hours. Nearly 1,000 residents were evacuated, and more than 50,000 people across a three-mile radius were advised to shelter in place until the next evening.
“For years, MIRA Safety has worked to bring professional-grade protective equipment to civilians. The next level is awareness,” said Tanya Mironova, the company’s chief technology officer. “We are approaching emergency preparedness from a technology point of view, turning ideas into tools anyone can use, and listening to what people on the ground need.”
Mironova said the simulator helps people picture what a chemical emergency near their home could look like, so they can understand why officials issue evacuation and shelter-in-place orders and start thinking about a plan before an emergency happens. Scenarios for additional states are in development, the company said.
The Toledo release showed how quickly those orders can reshape a city. Residents inside the affected area were told to stay indoors with windows closed and ventilation drawing outside air switched off, schools canceled or delayed classes, and an elementary school served as a reception center while city buses provided additional shelter for displaced residents.
Officials during the release also stressed a point the simulator is designed to teach: people cannot tell the difference between natural fog and a chemical plume by looking at the air, and anyone outside the evacuation and shelter-in-place zones who noticed an unusual odor was told to go indoors and contact a medical professional if they felt symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, fatigue, vomiting or nausea.
For Toledo-area families, the tool turns a difficult week into a planning exercise. Residents can use the Toledo scenario to walk through where a plume might travel, which waterways sit nearby, and what their household would do in the first hour after an evacuation or shelter-in-place order — while the city’s own experience is still fresh.
Photo: Chris Rycroft, CC BY 2.0