Tom Scully knows a thing or two about safety. Now retired after more than three decades with the San Jose City Fire Department, Tom is an expert in hazardous materials response and training now sharing his expertise with leading Mobile Fueling on Demand (MFOD) company Booster Fuels.
Tom’s extensive background includes helping to pioneer Silicon Valley’s response and handling of chemicals released into the environment, a radical first-of-its kind program with a critical impact on the safer environment we have today. Additionally, he has worked with the US Government alongside the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address large fuel spills into local waterways and as well as serving as an advanced Public Information Officer instructor for Homeland Security at the Anniston Alabama facility.
Over the past four years, Tom has assisted the Booster team in creating work processes that emphasize safety. His vast background, including ten years as a hazardous materials response team specialist, has given him a broad view of the successful methods used to work with and around hazardous materials (HazMat). To implement these processes, he encourages persistent planning and training, believing collaboration to be a tool and an end-product.
The Service Professionals (SPs) who operate Booster’s propriety mini-tankers are the first line of interaction with the public, agency inspectors, and first responders when delivering fuel. Therefore, they play a key role in solidifying safety measures. Through Tom’s extensive work, every SP at Booster has a deep understanding of the product they are working with and how to keep themselves, and the public, safe at all times.
Alongside the Booster team, Tom designed the comprehensive plan that prevents fuel spills and the response protocols to guide Booster’s action in the unlikely event of a release. Safety Isolation Notification (SIN) is the guiding principle used to safely handle releases to ensure that they are kept to their smallest footprint and control of the scene is maintained until fire and HazMat services arrive. Each of Booster’s proprietary mini tankers is equipped with a Spill Bucket, originally designed by Tom for fire service engines, that includes all of the necessary materials for Booster’s trained SPs to act upon the SIN principle. Guided by the Incident Command System, SP’s know how to prepare the scene for fire authorities and the role they play until the scene is secure.
Tom Scully’s experience and training are critical to Booster Fuels’s ability to work with government agencies in the design, permitting, inspecting and delivering of a valuable resource.
Thanks to his work, there have been no spills that impacted stormwater or drainage systems since Booster’s operations began in 2015.