HAZMAT Training An Ongoing Effort
Firefighters and other first responders took part in HAZMAT training on Thursday night. (submitted photo)
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Training is something every professional needs in order to stay at the top of their game. When it comes to HAZMAT that training can make the difference in life and death situations.
For Mahaska County Emergency Management, helping to keep those first responders in the county up to date is a responsibility they don’t take lightly, especially since taking over HAZMAT duties from an outside entity.
On Thursday night, first responders from around the county gathered at the Emergency Management facility, (the former Oskaloosa Schools bus barn) for another round of training. The funds for the class were made possible by federal funds.
Mahaska County took over it’s own HAZMAT coverage after conversations began in 2012 about making the change from an outside contractor.
The Mahaska County HAZMAT team, which includes members from New Sharon, Cedar Township and Oskaloosa fire department have been involved in high profile events like the one at Mahaska. That was the incident in March where a white powder was discovered in the mail. Others are less high profile, and included collecting mercury thermometers from the high school.
Being able to have boots on the ground to incidents like those described above, comes from the hours of training that responders undergo in order to handle those various incidents. “We actually invite all the fire departments, no matter if they are part of the HAZMAT team or not to come in and do this great training so that everybody’s on the same page when we respond”, said Mahaska County Emergency Manager Jamey Robinson.
Robinson said that fire departments are at the operations level in their ability to respond to HAZMAT situations.
HAZMAT team members are the technician level.
Police and EMS units help serve as the awareness level of response for HAZMAT situations.
“Each step takes a little bit more training. The technician refresher takes 8 hours. The initial HAZMAT tech course takes 40 hours”, explained Robinson.
Federal money will make a HAZMAT tech class available to departments in October explained Robinson. “This way we can get more people trained for our HAZMAT team”.
Robinson said that HAZMAT team usage has increased in the county. Robinson attributes the knowledge about hazardous situations has increased, and with that an understanding of how to handle those situations in a correct way.
The county previously used SIRG for HAZMAT situations. SIRG is based out of Ottumwa, and the response time was part of the reasoning was given for initially developing the county-wide HAZMAT team. “We have guys that are right there. They are trained. They can go in, take care of a situation”, says Robinson of the response time available to residents and businesses.
