SAN CARLOS, CA -- IN 1973, a resident found a desk-sized metal container in a vacant lot in Belmont and figured it would make a nice barbecue. Then, his would-be grill started spewing a strange gas, so he called the fire department.
Twenty-seven firefighters ended up in the hospital because of that gas -- a now-banned chemical called methyl bromide -- and three of them later died from the exposure.
Concerned about the Belmont spill, an explosive fire at a local paint factory and other toxic accidents in the South County -- then full of chemical and industrial companies -- Jim O'Donnell sprang into action.
In 1978, O'Donnell launched the Industrial Emergency Council, a San Carlos nonprofit organization that trains firefighters, police officers and employees of private companies throughout the state in hazardous materials response, emergency preparedness, rescue and other skills.
The need was huge, said O'Donnell, a retired South County Fire Authority battalion chief. Firefighters didn't know much about the chemicals they were encountering and weren't sure how to deal with them.
At the time of the methyl bromide leak, there were only two protective suits available to the department in the whole county. Still, neither were taken out of their boxes.
"The real problem was we had no idea what we were dealing with," said O'Donnell, 70. "It became obvious we had to do something."
Determined to make things more safe, O'Donnell and a colleague footed the bill for coffee and donuts and began inviting area firefighters and business people to meetings at a San Carlos firehouse.
"We realized at that time we had a purpose that didn't exist anywhere else," he said.
The meetings became regular get-togethers, which grew into large training seminars at the now-defunct Circle Star Theater in San Carlos. The organization was incorporated as a nonprofit group by 1979, and was initially called the South County Emergency Council.
Early on, the council created a hazardous materials response team -- a private and public partnership that took $300,000 and two years to put together. The team, now made up of 18 members, responds to all chemical spills in the county and gets called out whenever someone finds an unknown liquid or powder.
IEC officially opened an office in 1996 and operates out of a second-story suite at the San Carlos Library. Its staff of 14 includes former firefighters, like O'Donnell, and retirees from law enforcement.
O'Donnell's group trains more than 4,000 people a year and works with companies including IBM, Nektar and Hewlett-Packard. IEC also has some 200 instructors -- from public safety experts to chemists, industrial hygienists and consultants.
Business has doubled since Sept. 11 and the group has been expanding its services to include more training for police. Among other things, it is planning to host a series of weapons-of-mass-destruction exercises this January.
