This morning York Village Fire was paged out via our cell phone text paging system to respond to the station for “station coverage” first due company officers found that a UPS truck was parked in the yard with a suspicious white powder covering some packages destined for York High School. The UPS driver came into the fire station and casually asked the on-duty firefighter to take a look at something. FF J. Gay found white powder in the back of the truck. He immediately called for help. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard FD was called for assistance. In the meantime, York Village Fire’s Haz-Mat certified personnel isolated the scene and denied entry until a positive ID of the substance could be found. On arrival of the PNSY Haz-Mat rig York Village Fire personnel were asked to obtain a sample of the substance for the Haz-Mat team to identify. The substance was identified as soap powder which had spilled when a box broke in the back of the delivery truck. The companies on scene were assisted by York Police Department and all agencies worked seamlessly together. The incident was under control in a little under an hour and a half.
