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As the caustic, stinging odor of chemicals streamed from a deteriorating railroad tanker, the fire department's command post was dissolving into chaos, too.

Since dawn on Sunday, an unknown mixture of chemicals had been pouring from three holes in the steel skin of the tanker parked in a rail yard in South Salt Lake. An orange cloud of vaporizing liquid hovered above.

And things were getting worse. Fire Chief Steve Foote's command post had just learned that the steel hull was breaking down faster than anyone had expected. That could mean the stream could turn into a 13,000-gallon river, and that the cloud could spread over a four-block by four-block area of homes and businesses.

The yard was seething with officials from various agencies, and all of them were yelling for Foote.

"I just had to say, 'Everybody just shut up. I need to think for a minute,' " Foote recounted Tuesday.

So he stepped away.

"Things like that will get out of control," Foote said. A moment of solitude let him think about what was happening and "wrestle control back."

Then he returned to the others, took their suggestions, mapped out a plan and ultimately solved the problem by draining and isolating the tanker.

A firefighter since he graduated from high school in 1979, Foote is on call and in charge when things go bad in South Salt Lake, as they did Sunday. Just last summer, he directed 160 firefighters who knocked down a six-alarm warehouse fire, visible throughout the Salt Lake Valley, that caused $5.5 million in damage.

And that's just the job. At home, there is housework and homework, pizza parties and sleepovers for a 10-year-old daughter he is raising alone.

"There's not a lot of 'me' time," Foote said. "It's my daughter and the department."

Colleagues and family marvel at his balancing act.

"I don't know how he does it," said Paula Foote, the chief's sister. "It's tough for him at times because he has to leave."

His aunt, Frankie Ford, steps in when that happens. "He's taken the role of being a dad just like he does everything; with a lot of gusto," she says.

It helps that Foote, according to his family, has the best sense of humor they know.

For instance, during his mother's funeral in late 2003, Foote joked that Aunt Frankie (he calls her his adopted mother) and her husband were now the "proud parents of a 43-year-old bouncing baby boy."

But when Foote looks out his office window, he sees manufacturers, warehouses, a jail, big-box stores and well-established neighborhoods in a city of 21,000 - 65,000 when the workplaces fill up.

In just 8 square miles, South Salt Lake encompasses the crossroads of Interstate 15 and Interstate 80, with SR201 merging from the west. Train tracks that serve its industrial side bring in any manner of cargo every day. The city has its seedy side.

Foote worked his way up in the fire department, making chief in 1998. Mayor Wes Losser, who took office in 2002, said he never considered replacing Foote.

"He's very professional and he's been very creative," Losser said.

Foote keeps his office in the main fire station, rarely closing the door. His 70 firefighters - 30 of them work part time - consider the three stations their second homes, said Chief Deputy Kevin Bowman, who joined the South Salt Lake Fire Department six months after Foote did.

It's reciprocal. "When my mom passed away, this fire department pulled me through it," Foote said.

While the pressure of the chemical spill was intense - Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., stopped by to take a look, and the chief got calls from the White House and the likes of CNN - Foote kept his prime objective in mind.

"My goal is to get through my career and not have to go to a home . . . and say that, 'I'm sorry to report,' " he said. "I don't want to do that."

This time, he didn't have to. Union Pacific supplied special equipment to drain the tanker of its chemical stew, and workers spread lime and soda ash to neutralize the liquid that had seeped into the earth. The freeways that had been closed for 21 hours reopened well before dawn Monday, and his firefighters went safely home.