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Metro Louisville Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) Team
Capabilities
Members from the suburban fire districts respond together when needed to
mitigate any hazardous materials incident that a single fire district may not be
equipped to handle alone. The team concept, has long been successful in
areas of response which require a large number of personnel and expertise.
Each team member is trained to Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
1910.120 Technician level, and some have specialized training on specific
chemicals that are in use or production in the Metro Louisville area.
The HAZMAT Team responds in support of Region Six within the State of
Kentucky. Fire districts have specialized vehicles, we call "Apparatus"
designed around a specific task, like "Decon" which is short for decontamination
or "Rehab", rehabilitation. That is where our firefighters are evaluated
to assess their medical baseline vital signs before, during, and after an
incident. We monitor their physical and mental state throughout a response
to prevent injuries when they become exhausted or over-exerted. Safety is
of paramount importance when responding to any incident, especially a HAZMAT.
- Hot Zone Entry
- Team members are qualified to operate inside the Hot Zone (area
immediately adjacent to a leaking vessel or hazardous release) while wearing
specially designed suits to prevent exposure to the chemical or hazards they
are cleaning up. Team members enter the hot zone use one of several
types of entry suits, Level-A, Level-B, or Tyvek®
based on the type of product that is leaking or
released.
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- Monitoring and Sampling
- Team members are all trained to use the many types and models of
monitoring and sampling equipment. The first thing our team has to do
is identify what we are dealing with, and when a chemical is spilled or
leaking from it's container, it isn't always easy to identify which
container it came from if there are multiple containers leaking. The
meters we use have to be maintained and adjusted or calibrated to ensure
they are always ready for use. We conduct regular training to ensure
everyone stays up on the latest changes and additions of our monitoring
equipment. Once a leak occurs, we have to suit up in protective
equipment and enter the hazard area in order to gather samples of the
product in order to identify the chemical and it's concentration levels
before we can choose the appropriate clean-up plan and materials. Some
chemicals will react violently when they come in contact with other
materials and even react with water, one more reason we have to sample the
products before rushing in to clean it up.
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- Decontamination
- Team members that make entry into a hot zone must be decontaminated
prior to removing their suits and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).
We setup portable showers and containment pools to capture the run-off from
the wash-down process. Everything the chemical touches must be
cleaned, retained and disposed of in accordance with applicable Federal,
State and local laws and regulations. The waste products from our "decon"
operations can sometimes be flushed with large amounts of water and diluted
before being processed into the sanitary sewer system, or packaged in drums
and disposed of through special waste disposal contractors.
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