In brief, Hardin County does this - There are basically three types of county hazmat teams, Type 1,2, and 3, with Type 1 being the most capable of handling the widest variety of incidents. For example, Columbus and Lima have Type 1 teams. Hardin is a Type 3, which can handle generally smaller events like vehicle wrecks with spilled fuel, some farm chemical incidents, and an assortment of other hazmat incidents not requiring extreme measures of containment or cleanup. For large chemical incidents the entity causing the release or spill of a hazardous substance is required to make arrangements with a professional cleanup company, and EPA is almost always involved. In a hazmat incident the local fire department has jurisdiction and controls the scene. Our fire department on the scene determines if a hazmat team is needed. Our Type 3 team members are all members of one of our village, city, or township fire departments, who voluntarily serve on what we call a county-wide hazmat team, and they are not employees of the county. They volunteer for the team with the approval of their fire department's Chief, and are thereby covered by their own fire department's workers compensation. There are three general levels of hazmat training for local responders - Awareness, Operations, and Technicians. Our local team members are all trained to the Technician level, which is the highest level of the three and allows them to respond with most types of personal protective suits and gear and in a wider variety of situations. We often use the University of Findlay for training purposes as they usually receive PUCO grants to help with costs. The PPE used by the team depends on each member's level of training and the specifics of what the incident requires. We used the Homeland Security grants for a lot of their equipment purchases in past years. After a hazmat incident the team gives me a list of equipment used up or damaged during the incident and I bill the responsible party for causing the spill or release so that the equipment might be replaced. This is just an overview of our county's hazmat response. For details of our county-wide hazmat team's policies or other procedures you may contact the team's coordinator, Bob Wilson, at 567-674-4703, who has indicated to me that he would be happy to field your questions. Max Trachsel Hardin EMA Hardin Loss Control From: CORSA-broadcast [mailto:corsa-broadcast-bounces@corsa.org] On Behalf Of Dawn Hogrefe Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2013 4:15 PM To: 'corsa-broadcast@corsa.org' Subject: [CORSA-broadcast] HAZ MAT TEAM Hello - We are interested in knowing how you deal with a hazardous spill on the roadway. (not knowing the source or the what the material is that was spilled) Does your county have a HazMat team that handles this? Is this team employees of the county or do the township fire departments handle this? How/Where does the HazMat team get training? What PPE is required? Do you have a policy that you ar willing to share? Dawn R. Hogrefe Loss Control Coordinator Fulton County Commissioners 152 S. Fulton Wauseon, OH 43567 (419)337-9255 (419)337-9285 (fax) <mailto:dhogrefe@fultoncountyoh.com> dhogrefe@fultoncountyoh.com
