The Operations Safety Committee of the Silicones Environmental, Health and Safety Council (SEHSC) has compiled this manual to provide guidance on how to safely handle chlorosilanes when responding to fires, leaks and/or spills involving chlorosilanes. You’ll access techniques that have been used by trained and knowledgeable emergency response teams.

The SEHSC guidelines have been organized in the same manner as the 2012 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) for maximum familiarity to emergency responders. The chlorosilanes are divided into four distinct classes:

• SEHSC-001 (ERG Guide 139): Any chlorsilane containing an SiH bond.

• SEHSC-002 (ERG Guide 155): Flammable chlorsilanes not containing SiH bonds.

• SEHSC-003 (ERG Guide 156): Combustible chlorsilanes not containing SiH bonds.

• SEHSC-004 (ERG Guide 157): Silicon tetrachloride.

Also explained in this manual are the uses of foam in fighting a chlorosilane fire and reducing the amount of vapor release.

While this guide provides safety procedures for handling a chlorosilane fire and/or spill, there are other important emergency response procedures that not provided in this guide; these procedures can be found in ASTM Guide for Containment by Emergency Response Personnel of Hazardous Material Spills (F1127), ASTM Manual 10 A Guide to the Safe Handling of Hazardous Materials Accidents, and ASTM Guide for Using Aqueous Foams to Control the Vapor Hazard from Immiscible Volatile Liquids (F1129).