Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of Spotlight Newspapers’ series on AMD coming to the town of Malta.
For the past 60 years, residents in the Town of Malta have known that two fire departments will be ready to respond when they pick up the phone in an emergency. The Malta Ridge and Round Lake fire departments currently protect the rural town with a combined 110 volunteers, a formula that works.
Malta is set to boom with the arrival of a $4.6 billion AMD Fab Technologies microchip manufacturing facility, though, and the possibility of the area growing while services remain stagnant is a scenario that concerns Fred Sievers, president of the Round Lake Fire Department.
The big issue for us is going to be the potential for an alarms increase, he said.
`The growth that comes with AMD is going to be our responsibility,` said Malta Ridge Fire Chief Peter Shaw. `We’re attempting to ramp up.`
Fire officials said dealing with the factory itself will not likely be a major issue for either department, though they are planning for the arrival of the 900,000-square-foot facility. As with AMD’s factories in Dresden, Germany, there will be an in-house team trained and ready around-the-clock to deal with all but the most catastrophic incidents.
`We have a very robust approach to what we call an emergency response team,` said Steve Groseclose, AMD’s director of environmental health and safety. He estimated that Fab 4X will probably have around 150 employees to provide continuous coverage for situations from sprained ankles to toxic gas leaks.
`Statistically, there are very few responses that we have to call out to local agencies,` said Groseclose, though he acknowledged that in situations like large fires or severe medical cases, it would be necessary. `There is a potential there, so we train and cross train with the local responders.`
That includes annual drills with departments in Germany. AMD will be sitting down with emergency responders in Malta in the near future to go over details, as well.
There has been only one call to local agencies in Germany for fire, according to Groseclose, and that was during construction.
Saratoga County has a hazardous materials truck based out of the Saratoga Springs West Side Fire Station, and about 40 volunteers are trained for hazmat response, according to Saratoga County Fire Coordinator Ed Tremblay.
`We have specialized equipment to get into areas the firefighters might not be able to get into with their equipment,` he said. While Saratoga Springs is 20 or 30 minutes away, dealing with a toxic spill can be a slow, careful process.
`Hazmat response is not a fast thing,` said Tremblay. `There’s a lot to think about before entry.`
In the event of a major emergency, local firefighters would be on the scene until the county hazmat team arrived.
`It’s that first 15, 20 minutes the local departments have to deal with,` said Sievers. `Our belief is that there is some specialized equipment that is going to be required, and it’s not cheap equipment.`
Fab 4X will be home to advanced gas monitoring devices and fire suppression systems. Nastier chemicals will be housed in multi-layered containers.
`These systems are really designed to contain the toxic materials,` said Groseclose.
Even if they never fight fires at the Luther Forest Technology Campus, both fire departments will probably see more buildings popping up in their districts as an estimated 6,500 jobs come to the area. In the downtown area of Malta, construction is already under way at developments like Ellsworth Commons and Park Place, two projects with dozens of dwellings and around 185,000 square feet of combined retail space.
Malta Ridge’s Station 2 is in the downtown area.
`We’re looking to develop that and expand our downtown operation,` said Shaw.
With bigger structures on the way, Shaw said he has concerns that his department won’t have the equipment to reach up four or five-story buildings, and would like to acquire an aerial ladder.
`We don’t always have what exactly we need,` said Shaw. `It just makes good tactical sense to us to have an aerial ladder available to us on first call basis.`
Such equipment is expensive, of course. Additional funding is on the horizon for both operations. The current estimate is that Fab 4X will generate $400,000 in fire taxes to be split between the departments, but only after its doors open in 2012, not when construction starts next year.
`Once they put shovels in the ground, we’re going to be protecting the area. We’re providing a service, and at this point we’re not receiving any remuneration in that area,` said Shaw, adding that would be the case with any project.
Before and beyond funding or equipment, both Shaw and Sievers say what they can really use are more volunteers.
`Probably the biggest issue for volunteer fire departments nationwide is membership,` said Sievers.“