Emergency services personnel used a forklift in a supporting role during environmental training exercises.

Organisers say that the forklift purportedly hit and damaged a pipeline carrying petroleum. Next, the operator supposedly put the forklift in reverse, and it collided with an electrical transformer that contained a cancer-causing agent. Adding to the hazardous material props were a drum with a corrosive material and a cylinder with poison.

Multiple lessons emerged from the complex scenario for the trainees from Cumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon and York counties. The respondents put on environmental protection apparel including suits, gloves and boots and went through drills on 28 June in York for on-scene trainers and coordinators including one from the US Environmental Protection Agency.