Verizon Frontline demos connectivity and emergency response to chemical spill drill

CARY, NC – On a hot and humid morning last week, the Verizon Frontline Response Team gathered in the parking lot outside a local Verizon office building to address a chemical spill emergency.

Fortunately, what looked like a jet fuel leak in and around nearby Lake Crabtree from a tanker accident on Interstate 40 was only a drill. Verizon’s Cary/Morrisville office location resides close to the Raleigh/Durham International Airport – hence the realistic scenario of a tanker transporting rocket fuel crashing on the nearby highway.

Verizon’s Major Emergency Response Incident Team (MERIT) members are required to fulfill 80 to 100 hours a year of training, and this demo provided them with an opportunity to test their skills.

Local firefighters arrived to participate in the drill, gearing up and deploying the hose from the firetruck’s ladder. Verizon employees practiced evacuating the building, and Verizon’s Response Team suited up in full hazmat gear and oxygen tanks to assess when the building would be habitable again by checking the building’s air filters and status of network connectivity services.

In addition to checking on the status of existing network technology, Verizon brings temporary connectivity services such as a mobile cell on wheels unit (COW), satellite phones, radios, a number of Internet access connections and more.

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