GIBSON CITY - Gibson City's fire chief said he likes the city's emergency response plan but would like better equipment for handling chemical spills.

"We are in good shape, but we don't have our own chemical team," Jeff Volker said of the city's ability to respond to emergencies.

Volker said he would like to have suits with dedicated airpacks for each member of the emergency response team. The suits would cost $5,000 to $10,000, but Volker has applied for grants in hopes of raising the money, he said.

"At this point this is one of the challenges we face," Volker said.

"Our policy calls for us to evacuate and make sure everyone is safe and the area is secured," he said. "We would then have to wait an hour or so until a response team from either Bloomington or Champaign arrived before we could take any further action."

There is a lot of truck and train traffic and pipeline in the area, and Volker worries the response team would have to wait to act if one of them is involved in a spill.

"It is extremely painful to just sit there and wait to see if the truck driver, for instance, is in good condition because you can't do anything until more help arrives," added Volker.

An emergency call last week at County Market in Gibson City was easily handled, but it was a reminder of the need for the city's emergency response plan, and the team organized to carry it out.

Cleaning crews inadvertently mixed bleach with a cleaning solution, creating a noxious gas. Store management called the Gibson City Fire Protection District to find out what to do.

Employees were told to evacuate and the store remained closed for about 20 minutes while it was ventilated. Firefighters looked to see if anyone was overcome by fumes and if there were other chemical hazards remaining.

The fire department handled the relatively routine incident as it always would have, Volker said.

However, the incident could have been worse. In a full-blown emergency, first responders would have triggered the city's emergency response plan.

City police, fire and rescue departments would respond under the plan much as they did before its creation, Volker said. The plan, however, saves time because it eliminates the need to make many decisions at the scene, he said.

"The people have always had this level of protection, but the emergency response plan allows us to formally take necessary action," Volker said. "In the past, there has always been a lot of decision making in the field. This plan will eliminate that because all of the pre-decision making has already taken place."