Firefighters were prepared for far-fetched satellite threat

REVERE – With apologies to Henny Penny, Gene Doherty did not look skyward last night to see if the rogue satellite plummeting toward Earth would impact locally, but Revere’s fire chief and his colleagues were prepared to deal with the fallout from the celestial threat.A missile launched from a Navy ship struck the dying U.S. spy satellite passing 130 miles over the Pacific Wednesday night.Federal emergency management officials had warned Doherty and public safety officials across the country this week to be prepared in the extremely unlikely event pieces of the satellite shot down by a Navy missile land in populated areas.They also warned about the even more remote specter of the entire 5,000-pound satellite crashing to the ground with its load of Hydrazine fuel. It was not clear last night whether the operation succeeded in its main goal of destroying the tank that carried the toxic fuel”Hydrazine is a very dangerous chemical but no more so than many of the other substances that travel on the rails and highways of America everyday for which you train and prepare to respond,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency stated in a notice to the Fire Department.Revere and a dozen other communities north of Boston are members of the Mystic Valley Regional Planning Committee, an organization that coordinates hazardous materials response training.The training helps prepare firefighters to respond quickly to hazardous materials accidents; isolate chemical, waste or fuel spills and evacuate anyone near a spill site.The potential threats are typically rail or truck-borne, not airborne, but Doherty said flight paths into Logan Airport over Revere pose risks.Doherty and counterparts from surrounding cities have planned for disasters and attended emergency planning training sessions, but the chief is quick to admit that calmness, preparation and cooperation on the part of local residents is the key to successful emergency response.Emergency workers will have to arrange transportation for seniors, assure the safety of school children and communicate with the estimated 15 percent of the city’s non English-speaking population.A citywide response to a major regional emergency would probably begin with Mayor Thomas Ambrosino declaring an emergency in response to recommendations from public safety officials.In addition to computerized telephone alerts, the city would broadcast emergency instructions on cable television and send police cruisers onto local streets to announce instructions on their loudspeakers.Doherty said the calls would take about 18 minutes to complete and provide an initial and only partial alert for the orderly exit of over 47,000 people from Revere.City Councilors led by John Correggio and Anthony Zambuto have asked local petroleum distributors located on Lee Burbank Highway and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to brief the city on their emergency response plans.Irving Oil and Global representatives told councilors in 2006 that their employees inspect trucks arriving at the terminals and check driver’s licenses.