Seabrook fire chief highlights mutual aid response to warehouse solar-panel fire; Harris County Hazmat outlines regional support

Seabrook Volunteer Fire Department Chief Nathan Douglas told the council the department has handled 588 calls since October, with roughly 60% classified as first-responder incidents, and described mutual-aid activity including a recent warehouse solar-panel fire in nearby Pasadena.

“We're on track for 588 calls from October till present with about 60% of them being first responder calls,” Douglas said. He showed photos of the Pasadena incident in which technicians were working on solar panels when a fire ignited and described how Seabrook and neighboring departments operated ladder trucks side-by-side during the response.

Douglas thanked Seabrook personnel who have been working on cosmetic and punch-list repairs at Station 10 and noted a larger capital punch list of repairs (floors, windows) that will be addressed when the EMS expansion starts. He also introduced Richard Lawhorn from the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office Hazmat unit to explain regional hazardous-materials support.

Lawhorn described the county response team as a FEMA Type 1 Hazmat team that formed after the 9/11 attacks and now covers unincorporated Harris County and cities that do not maintain their own hazmat teams. “We are a FEMA type 1 hazmat team. We were started out of the events of nineeleven,” Lawhorn said. He detailed recent responses in the region, noting recent tanker truck incidents and a hydrochloric-acid event and describing a program of preplans for Tier II facilities that feed data into a Responder360 platform.

During Q&A, staff and council discussed a proposed freezer facility that would use anhydrous ammonia for refrigeration. Douglas said staff research indicated federal rules would allow 10,000 pounds but the projected facility amount would be about 5,000 pounds. “The federal statute said you can have 10,000 pounds? … The projection is gonna be 5,000. So they're half at what that allows,” Douglas said.

Lawhorn and Douglas emphasized that operating a full hazmat team is costly and that Harris County’s regional approach allows smaller cities to access specialized capabilities. Lawhorn said hazmat equipment can cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” per item and described the value of preplanning, contact protocols and having facility information available to first responders via Responder360.

The presentation was informational; no formal council action was taken on the hazmat presentation itself. Council thanked the presenters.