Firefighters earn hazardous material training

  • Published
  • By Lois Walsh
  • 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  In-house training for the Eglin's firefighters kicked off Sept. 24, saving the unit hours in manpower and thousands of dollars. 

A two-man mobile traveling team from Goodfellow Air Force Base's Department of Defense Fire Academy spent more than a week teaching hazardous material training to twenty local firefighters. The training is considered a building block for technicians; first raising awareness, then focusing on operations, consisting of identifying various hazardous agents and finally honing the technician's skills to include the correct wear of protective suits and use of specialized equipment. 

According to Master Sgt. William Hadley, district chief at Duke Field and former hazmat instructor at Goodfellow, the training is now a requirement for military technicians to pass their five-level training. And, having the team teach the class here saved more than $70,000 in TDY funds for the 20 technicians attending the class. 

"We were lucky to get them to teach it here," Sergeant Hadley said. 

Duke Field hosted the instructional portion of the class while practical applications were tested here. 

"In the technician's role, you have to stop the product and you have to identify it," Sergeant Hadley said. "If there's an accident, you suit up and send a team in and then try to get driver out and find the shipping papers to identify product." 

Sergeant Hadley said first responders will not make contact with the product without knowing if the protective suit they're wearing is enough protection against the agent.
"Once identified, and if the suit is compatible, they can go in and stop the leak," he said. "Then another team can go in and mitigate the problem." 

Firefighter Airman First Class Michael Hoh said he learned a great deal of valuable information during the class, including disposing of hazardous chemicals and responding to hazmat incidents. 

"It was a lot of information in a week," Airman Hoh said. "We learned some of it in tech school, but this was much more in depth." 

Sergeant Hadley said while the chance of a hazmat incident is slight, it's important for the technicians to have the right mindset. 

"You have to go with the worse case scenarios and put that in their heads," he said. "The days seeing a liquid on the ground, reaching down, touching it and smelling it are over. That's not a good thing."