When: Wednesday, August 30 from 2-3pm

Where: San Jacinto College – In the new Mass Timber Building
8060 Spencer Highway Pasadena, TX 77505
Room C-16.1013

Please RSVP to attend https://share.hsforms.com/1OyErmuP0RdyWXWND2Nqdxg1bv71

Questions? Please contact us at safety@porthouston.com

The post Trucker Safety Meeting appeared first on Port Houston.

First responders play an important role in our communities, protecting citizens and entities from threats and unsafe circumstances. They provide their expertise and utilize countless hours of training to bring safety to people in need.

At Port Houston, public safety plays a big role in ensuring the Port and the Houston Ship Channel continue to operate and drive commerce to the region. We provide security for the entire Channel, which includes Port Houston’s eight public terminals and more than 200 private facilities.

The Port’s Security and Emergency Operations (PSEO) division include emergency management, police, fire fighters, and security, working in partnership with private, local, and state-level entities. Each group performs various tasks and distinct roles, including dispatch, patrol, fire safety inspections, emergency planning, training, and more.

Jessica Montecalvo, Port Houston’s Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, along with the rest of the emergency management staff, acts as a first responder. The Department of Emergency Management is responsible for planning and responding to incidents. In addition, the team is responsible for implementing all emergency management-related activities. This includes driving initiatives like building a hurricane preparedness plan and working through various scenarios that can affect the port’s activity or operations due to emergency disruptions.

Port Police is its own department, separate from the City of Houston’s police. This team helps keep truckers, port employees, and those on Port Houston property safe. Port police takes on a lot of responsibility, answering a large amount of calls across port property. These calls include response at the gates, damage to port property, disabled vehicles, lost or recovered property, making arrests of any persons with an outstanding warrant, and PH vessel calls when a vessel needs help moving.

Port Houston’s Fire department supports all terminals and facilities both waterside and on land, of the 52-mile ship channel. Covering all the way from Bolivar Road in Galveston to Buffalo Bayou and all its tributaries that stem from it, this team takes preventative measures to ensure the Port stays safe by enforcing code, tariffs, providing extinguisher inspections, and reviewing plans for new construction.

Port Houston’s Security department works hard to operate and ensure that the port gates stay secure. Jessica Thomas, Director of Port Houston Security notes, “I have a team of thirteen people, this includes facility security managers who manage the basic security in the facility, I have port security officers that go around the terminal checking fence lines, doing gate requests and access control, and the credentialing department which does all the access control for Port Houston, employees, contractors, and port tenants.”

Extensive training and the right equipment allow the port first responders to act quickly and potentially save lives, making their job a critical part of Port Houston’s workforce. As leaders in the organization, they also are active in volunteering and community service at nearby communities. To learn more about recruitment opportunities and careers in port security and emergency operations, visit: porthouston.com/careers-2/

The post Honoring Port Houston’s First Responders appeared first on Port Houston.

Port Houston Commission Chairman Ric Campo recognized the efforts of those responding to the ITC tank fire on the Houston Ship Channel that impacted the channel and surrounding neighboring communities.

“The response to the emergency event along the Houston Ship Channel was an amazing effort led by the port community,” he remarked.

Campo highlighted the “valiant” efforts of the Port of Houston Authority firefighters responding to the emergency. He made the remarks at the March Port Commission meeting.

Guenther reported that between March 17 and March 26, Port Houston firefighters spent 2,300-man hours worked on this incident and at least two of the three fireboats worked continuously throughout the event.

Initially, the tank fire farm was extinguished but re-flashed a few days later. Two fireboats remained in the vicinity conducting air monitoring for the safety of the surrounding communities. On Friday, March 22, the fire re-flashed shortly after chemicals and the water foam mixture from fighting the fire leaked into the channel via a drainage ditch.

Guenther noted that Port Houston’s firefighters immediately moored one of the fireboats and began providing firefighting water, while the other fireboat was stationed at the mouth of the drainage ditch to extinguish any fire before it reached the ship channel.

The post Port Houston Firefighters Recognized for ITC Fire Response appeared first on Port Houston.

More than 200 participants from 13 Houston-area public safety agencies and 20 industry partners participated in a federally sponsored emergency management exercise Dec. 4 and 5.

Port Houston welcomed the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate's Next Generation First Responder Program. The exercise’s purpose was to show how commercial and DHS-developed technologies can be integrated with existing public safety systems in a HAZMAT scenario.

The test also was designed to learn how to improve responder safety and augmented situational awareness, increased operational coordination and enhanced operational communications.

During the exercise, participants assessed technologies on a simulated offshore fuel leak from ships in the port. Technologies included advanced data analytics, HAZMAT sensors, responder and patient physiological monitoring sensors, situational awareness and collaboration dashboards and indoor location tracking.

William N. Bryan, Senior Official Performing Duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology, lauded all the agencies involved for their efforts.

“This is a great endeavor and could not have been accomplished without the time and dedication from our Houston-area and Harris County public safety agency and industry partners for their time, dedication, and determination for a successful exercise,” Bryan said. “Homeland security begins with hometown security. It is partnerships like these that help us show the world the future of first responder technology.”

The Office of Emergency Management at Port Houston is responsible for the preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation of emergencies and major disasters at the port.

The post Key Homeland Security Exercise Held at Port Houston appeared first on Port Houston.

Recent safety initiatives put in place at Port Houston are aimed at ensuring a healthy and safe work environment for employees, tenants and visitors alike.

Over the last several years, Port Houston has made significant enhancements in its safety culture and performance. In 2017, the port’s Lost Time Incident Frequency Rate went down from 1.11 to 0.97 (per 200,000 man-hours worked) compared to industry average of 3.5. 

The port’s safety department holds routine meetings with operations and maintenance employees as well as truckers. “It’s important for us to also educate the companies out there working on our behalf,” said Port Houston Safety Lead Matt Chapman. “We all have the same objective – to get the job done right without causing potential incidents.”

Port Houston holds a professional membership with the National Safety Council and the American Society of Safety Engineers.

Port Houston’s responsibilities also include facilitating safety audits and incident investigations. The port is a member of the Lone Star Harbor Safety Committee, an organization that provides a public forum to address Marine Transportation System (MTS) issues, with particular emphasis on navigation safety-related matters involving the ports of Houston, Galveston, Texas City and Freeport. That includes the associated waterways of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and offshore lightering zones.

More than 3,500 observation audits have been completed on port property since 2014. The port also recently adopted smart device use standards for employees to prevent distractions while driving vehicles, operating machinery and walking through parking lots or crosswalks. “This was good timing as the State of Texas changed the regulation on texting while driving in 2017,” added Chapman.

Port Houston continues to make safety a paramount priority. 

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