By Mike Savage
The weekend of March 23 saw 25 members of the emergency service community from around the North Thompson region go to the Blackpool Fire Hall to take part in a HAZMAT (hazardous materials) Operations Certification Course.
The federally funded training program provided by the IAFF organization (International Association of Fire Fighters) provides qualified instructors and instruction in advanced HAZMAT Operational awareness and defensive techniques that firefighters, and other emergency service partners such as RCMP and BC EHS, to safely manage a hazardous materials incident until specialized support arrives.
The three-day course covered the advanced operational awareness, scene analysis, planning, response and implementation of all safety requirements that incident commanders and responders need to recognize and follow at a hazardous material scene.
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This included the establishment of initial scene isolation zones, environmental considerations, and evacuation zones to keep the public and responders safe, understanding what firefighters can and can not do to rescue a person in a HAZMAT incident, and highlighting the limited protection firefighter bunker gear provides or does not provide.
It also covered victim rescue procedures, gas cloud dispersion techniques, damming and diking procedures, spill mitigation and responder and victim decontamination procedures as well as how responders need to remove protective gear safely to avoid contamination by hazardous materials and avoid becoming a victim too.
Twenty-one firefighters from Barriere, Blackpool, Clearwater, Little Fort, Pritchard, and Vavenby, along with two members of the Clearwater RCMP Detachment and two members from the Clearwater EHS Ambulance Station all took the certification training.
IAFF instructors, Brent Cowx and Reid Wharton, took time away from their full-time fire fighting jobs to come to Clearwater and provide the training.
Everyone who attended the training takes back a valuable training tool for all the departments to better serve the communities, and keep everyone safer.
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