On Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 12:07 PM, 9 Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, 4 LAFD Rescue Ambulances, 1 Heavy Rescue, 1 Hazardous Materials Team, 2 EMS Battalion Captains, 3 Battalion Chief Officer Command Teams and 1 Division Chief Officer Command Team, a total of 69 Los Angeles Fire Department personnel under the direction of Battalion Chief Charles Butler, responded to a Hazardous Materials related Traffic Collision at the intersection of Burbank Boulevard and Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Valley Village.

Firefighters responded quickly to discover a collision between a passenger car and a small cargo truck, with the latter vehicle - from a medical supply firm, overturned and leaking product from a single 600 pound capacity cryogenic tank within the vehicles enclosed cargo area.

Querying the driver and seeking shipping papers, firefighters soon confirmed the leaking product, which was causing visible condensation on the body of the cargo truck, to be highly volatile liquid oxygen.

After promptly instituting a 500 foot exclusion zone around the overturned truck and closing the busy thoroughfares, firefighters coordinated the calm and orderly evacuation of a nearby restaurant and commercial nursery, as LAFD Hazmat experts arrived at the scene.

The Los Angeles Fire Department HazMat team swiftly stabilized the leak of liquid oxygen, further determining that an additional 18 ten-pound compressed oxygen cylinders in the cargo truck represented no escalating hazard.

Following their acute hazard mitigation, which included the abatement of ignition sources and the delicate removal of cargo, firefighters safely uprighted the truck with an LAFD Heavy Rescue Unit at the request of Los Angeles Police officials.

Though exhibiting no obvious injury, the 35 year-old male truck driver, having been struck by unrestrained equipment in the cab of his vehicle, was taken to Sherman Oaks Hospital for further evaluation. The male and female minors who had been in the passenger vehicle were uninjured, and released to their parents at scene.

No other injuries were reported.

At the conclusion of LAFD operations, control of the scene was given to the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Health Hazardous Materials Division, the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation, and the Los Angeles Police Department, which is investigating the collision.

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Submitted by Brian Humphrey, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department