May 2008

A Dream is Born
By Barbara Doepping
Interact Business Group

The Origin of the Permian Basin Regional Training Center (PBRTC)

When the 12 members of the extended Smith, Heady and Sumler families lay down to rest on the evening of August 18, 2000 at their campsite near the bridge over the Pecos and Delaware rivers in Eddy County, New Mexico, they had no idea that in less that 12 hours their peaceful calm would become a raging inferno.  And that they would be engulfed in it, with no way out.

As they slept, the pressure in the 30-inch natural gas pipeline running over the bridge dropped from 650 psi to 300.  The leak was pinpointed by the monitoring system at El Paso Natural Gas and an employee was dispatched to investigate and shut down the gas flow.  But it would be too late for the unsuspecting campers.

At 5:35 a.m. on the morning of August 19, an emergency call came into the Carlsbad Police Department from a resident five miles from the campsite, who reported that an intense explosion had shaken his home and that a huge fire was burning nearby.

Immediately, Carlsbad Fire sent a fire truck and ambulance. The Loving Fire Department and the Eddy County, Joel, and Otis Volunteer Fire Departments also responded.  Carlsbad Fire Chief Mike Reynolds recounted that the intensity of the fire required them to relocate more than one-half mile away.

Suddenly, screams erupted downstream.  Responders crashed through dense underbrush and a salt cedar forest only to find five critically burned adults and one five-year-old child.  Nearby were the dead bodies of four children and two adults.  By the end of the day, three adults and one child of those rescued had died either in flight or at the hospital.  The last two victims died the following week and one a month later.  Twelve family members wiped out in moments, leaving the remaining family and community stunned with grief.

But out of the ashes of the tragic event the vision of building a regional training center began to emerge.  The family won a civil lawsuit against the pipeline company, and Martha Chapman (Nana), related by blood and marriage to all the victims, spearheaded the contribution of a $10 million dollar endowment to the Carlsbad Community Foundation (The Foundation), in memory of the family.  Another $2 million came from Waste Isolation Pilot Plant federal education funds. 

In December 2002, a committee was formed to determine the center’s needs.  Through 2003 and 2004, local, regional, federal and industrial public safety representatives from Eddy, Lea and Chavez Counties visited three facilities to establish benchmarks for the new plan.  They published their Strategic Plan in April of 2004.
The following year the programming and design efforts got underway.  Mark J. Maciha was named first executive director to act as facilitator of the training programs and the physical construction of the training center.... read more

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