SRS131EMTFF

I am curious to know if anyone has any experience as a HAZMAT incident safety officer that they are able to share. On Wednesday, as part of a HAZMAT class exercise I was appointed as the Safety Officer for a HAZMAT incident involving a TDSF. I have read the NFPA 472 standard on HM Incident SO's but I would like to know if there is any advice or tips that could be shared. Since this is a class of students and not a professional drill, obviously things will not be perfect but I am curious to know what hazards I should be aware of, what some of the common injuries are, what are some of the actions of SO's have taken during these events. I am considering using some of ICS paper work that I was given during my ICS 300 class (thanks chris) and I would like to know if people think that would help. I.E. operations wont proceed until a 201, 202, 203, 204 are completed and distributed.

Thanks for all of the response so far. @moose, I am surprised you have never heard of a TSDF, it is an EPA term coming from the joint OSHA and EPA HAZWOPER standards. http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/tsd/fac_reqs.htm @tony, I am familiar with a Health And Safety Plan and have read the 29 CFR 1910.120 regulations. This is not a full HAZMAT drill, this is simply a run through of the procedures regarding a hazmat incident requiring emergency response. While people will be suiting up and ICS and decon will be implemented the class is only 15 people big with an additional 2 instructors so we are somewhat limited in what we have and don't have. I have to oversee the safety of a 2-man entry team, 6 man decon team, an IC, Planning Chief, Finance/Logs Chief, Ops Chief, Intel/Plans Chief and a Public Info Officer. I was not sure to write a separate safety plan for each task and group as well as the incident as a whole, or to just write a safety plan for just the incident. Additionally, I am not totally sure what kind of info to include in my safety sheet, obviously the chemical hazards and alike but should slip, trip, falls be included? Weather and Environmental conditions?

TDSF or more correctly TSDF is a treatment, storage and disposal facility of hazardous waste under RCRA or the Resource Conservation and Recovery with standards contained in 40CFR.260-265.

So essentially, that means that any responder with an AED in the trunk of their car, once they arrive on scene that stops the clock? Because that is how it makes it sound. If that is the case then many places are most likely meeting that standard if their PD has an AED and responds to EMS calls.

They said he died in a firefight. I hope to god that the second he that first gunshot he knew exactly what was going on and who was here to collect him. I pray that realized exactly what was going to happen the second that SEAL team came in the front door. If only I was at Times Square, 1 WTC or the WH, if only...

Finally some justice for the 343, 37 and 23 as well as the almost 3000 innocents killed 9/11/2001. Hell is to good of place for this scumsucker. batt2 is right on the money, he may have 72 virgins but I know there are 343 out there just rallying for a fight. I will take 343 vs 72 any day. GOD BLESS AMERICA

Oh I see, I confused the terms, my mistake. I wish we in Westchester were meeting this standard as well. Unfortunately I had to go 300 miles away to find an EMS system that put as much emphasis on response times and standards as they do community service and awards.

Snooze-button...hahaha thats a good joke, between calls, training, community interaction and crew responsibilities I barely have time for nap let alone the time to hit the snooze button. Once we get a call, our average for responding is 26.7 seconds 7a-7p and 49.1 7p-7a for A-1, if A-2 is needed, it is an average of 10 seconds behind A-1. I was not aware that turn around time referred to the time from dispatch to responding, I was under the impression that turn around time was from responding to a call to being available in-service again. It was mentioned that there is a "...national response standard is BLS in 4 minutes (drive time)..." My comments were questioning how that is even obtainable without massive investments in EMS. I have spent 4 minutes pulled off to the side of the road in NYC waiting for an ambulance move half a block so how does the busiest EMS agency in the world meet the national standard. Is it with the CFR engines, or do they ignore the standard? That is where the statistics came from, its merely to high-light the scope of the FDNY EMS system in hopes it can be compared to someone else's and illuminate how these standards are meet in different environments.

very true, but the way the standard appears to be written you need more fire units than EMS units because the EMS units all need to be 5 minutes from each other regardless of distance, traffic, call volume etc... with fire units, the first unit has a time factor associated but all additionally units can come from farther, this is not the case for the sole EMS unit you mentioned who must be there in 5 minutes; the fourth due pumper, while needing to get there ASAP does not have the same standard applied to it.

Why Armonk would need one? NWPFD has a rear mount quint just down Route 22 less than 5 minutes away, Chappaqua has a TL quint 5 minutes down route 120 and Mt Kisco has a dedicated TL 5 minutes down route 128. Additionally, Millwood, Bedford Hills and White Plains as well as any CT ladders less than 10 minutes away.

Outside of any urban center who can actually meet that standard? Does that include any traffic? How much would it cost to meet that standard? Considering the size of the areas covered and the amount of EMS calls vs Fire calls, it would seem like that would cost more than any fire regionalization plans. Im sitting here in my HQ with 2 full 4 person ALS crews and even we cant make that just based on the service area we cover. It is neither cost effective nor practical to have that many EMS units in service. It seems like that would require more EMS units than fire units, and when we look at the busiest EMS system in the country, they have half as many fire units as ems units and 2/3rds less EMTs/Medics than FFs, yet there are 1.5 millions EMS calls annually in NYC, verse the 300,000 some fire calls. Uniformed Fire - 10,849 Uniformed EMS - 3,399 Engines 198 Trucks 143 EMS Units: 234 (Morning and Evening) 146 (Overnight)

Read the article on lohud about the FBI profile for FF arsonists and tell me there is not someone that fits that profile in every department... Additionally, the article on FF arsonists in Lower Hudson Valley left off what I though was a rather glaring example from a few years ago...

I will take one in NY please...A double double animal style with well fires and a shake before catching a train in GCT would make my day every day.....

Saw this posted on lohud. Ticketed Nanuet man calls new Move Over Act 'the state oppressing its citizenry to generate revenue' http://www.lohud.com/article/20110426/NEWS01/104260367/Ticketed-Nanuet-man-calls-new-Move-Over-Act-state-oppressing-its-citizenry-generate-revenue-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Frontpage|s The comments section, as usual is where some real nut bags can be found. If anyone, MOS or not, has ever had to go out on to a roadway to do any kind of work with cars moving past you at 40+ mph, they will realize the validity of this law. And its not just for PD either, while that was the focus of the article, it is as much for my safety as it is for theirs. Clearly anyone who opposes this law has never had to change a flat on Taconic or another major roadway....

Not to re-stir a hornets nest but do you mean by "nanny state"? Additionally, how it is what is being proposed a socialist contract/compact? You also have contradicted yourself, what is it, many people want it changed or many people want it left the same? What is many? You cant have a majority of both, its one or the either side?

Just curious what you frustrations with the Minitor series was? My complaints of the Minitor are size, inability to change the programing/difficulty reprograming, frequency of breakage and cutting in and out during transmissions (although that may be a tower/geography issue). Although a large plus is the ubiquity of programmers and technicians.

Im not arguing any point of that. When in public anything is up for grabs, all I was saying is that it is correct that it would be a much different experience in the US. I obviously have no knowledge of the logistics or security behind the Clinton Wedding this summer in Rhinebeck but I do imagine that very similar measures were taken there as well, however, because of the some what isolated location and lack of major international royalty it was not nearly as noticed.

Absolutely nothing, I thought you were just asking for times we could be sued.

As a FF/EMS provider I can be sued for negligence, battery, abandonment (although that may be into negligence) off the top of my head. As a driver of a responding apparatus involved in a PIAA?

Sign up for the WCDES email list and you will get all of their announcements. Also the www.wremsco.org site under training has several EMT-B original classes listed. There is one starting at the end of next month at IVAC and two starting at various times during the summer at WCC.

It was an interesting article and there were some interesting points, especially about cameras in the UK. If you go to the UK just about every inch has at least one camera trained on it, they say you are on camera for 95% of your day to day activities in major metropolitan centers. I am reminded of a quote mentioned here a lot that I was surprised wasn't mentioned in the article: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin, 1775

from lfd171's site: Non front line apparatus; either SUV, pickup, staff car or short bus. fairview: 6 White Plains: 6 Hartsdale: 3 Mt. Vernon: 8 New Rochelle: 9

I am not here to argue republican/democrat with you but I do have a question. In what way does a social contract/compact align itself with a communist society? How is it worse than anything else mentioned to date? In a nutshell if you are not familiar, a social contract/compact was a concept initially described by french enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau in which he argued that government had an obligation to protect its citizens, thus a social contract. If you want to live here, you have to agree with our rules and we will protect you using them. If you read the Preamble to the US Constitution: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." It is the entire idea of a social contract. If you read it carefully it has some interesting statements: provide for the common defense; promote welfare; secure our posterity.... I guess they must have been communists too....

I like it. No frills, nothing fancy, nice and compact. Good luck to the NWPFD guys with the new rig, when does it go in service?

their medics are just their term for EMT-Bs. They are only rated to NYSDOH BLS Transport and First Response. It is possible to have medics as undergrads, many of the nursing school grads by the end of their education end up challenging and testing out of the VTEMS and thus USDOT Paramedic program.