T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Belmont County Emergency Management Agency staff participate in a 24-hour hazardous materials study. Pictured from left are Frank Wojewodka, EMA Deputy Director Glenn Trudo and Tom Gulisek.

MARTINS FERRY — The Belmont County Emergency Management Agency conducted a 24-hour hazardous materials commodity flow study along Ohio 7 at Aetna Street in Martins Ferry.

The study began at 10 a.m. Thursday morning and was set to be completed at 10 a.m. today.

“Every truck that runs up and down the road has a placard on it,” EMA Director Dave Ivan said. “We’re logging those numbers to see what type of chemicals they’re hauling so that we can better prepare for if there’s an incident.”

The trucks that the EMA tracked are the bigger commercial trucks. The trucks have a placard on the side of it and if it is hauling hazardous chemicals, it will have a number inside that box. Ivan and his crew will look up the number in a guide that provides each hazardous chemical with a universal number.

“So let’s just say there’s a truck that has 157, so we’d go to the guide and you look for 157 and it gives us the whole rundown of what the potential hazards are,” Ivan said. “So we know if something should happen, this is how we need to handle it.”

If an incident involving hazardous materials were to happen, the local fire department would be in charge of the scene. The local fire department would go to the guide and see what the materials are to determine what steps would need to be taken.

“Based on the information of the book, they would know if they would have to evacuate, and it tells them how far to evacuate out. If it’s on fire, it would tell them how to fight the fire, as in do you put water on it or do you put foam or sand. So it pretty much gives a quick rundown on it,”

Ivan said.

He added that doing a study like this is helpful so the EMA is aware of which chemicals are entering Belmont County.

“It helps us have a better idea of what we’re looking at. Because some of the materials that are coming through, you have to have specialized equipment for. So based on our findings we’ll start looking at ways to get the equipment to be able to handle them,” he said.