BY RICK EDINGER
EXCEPT FOR THE U.S. MILITARY, some industrial fire brigades, and a few municipal fire departments, most hazardous materials responders serve in a dual capacity. The most common model is a fire department that has structural firefighters and EMS personnel who are also trained in hazmat response. With most fire service organizations now filling an all-hazards role, they’re managing day-to-day responses in addition to special operations activities. This creates a struggle to find the time and resources needed to meet all organizational missions.
- Organizing the Hazmat Response: Five Models
- Hazmat Response and Artificial Intelligence: The Next Evolution
- NFPA 470: The ‘New’ Old Hazardous Materials Response Standards
For hazardous materials response programs (HMRP), time allocation for non-emergent activities can easily be ignored or delayed. While most HMRPs can manage to carve out time and resources to train personnel and maintain apparatus and equipment, it’s the secondary tasks and activities that end up taking a back seat simply because there is too much to do elsewhere for busy, crosstrained personnel.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the need for HMRPs to allocate time for building relationships and conducting community outreach. But doing so, which involves actively promoting the HMRP and developing relationships with internal stakeholders and external community members, is important. In fact, it is so important that the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Hazardous Materials Response Committee has devoted an entire chapter to this subject in NFPA 475, Recommended Practice for Organizing, Managing, and Sustaining a Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Response Program.1
Internal Relationships and Preplanning
NFPA 475 breaks these relationship-building activities down by internal and external influences (opportunities). Internally, it’s important that HMRPs conduct focused preparedness activities that include preplanning and developing relationships with municipal and elected officials. Internal influences within the authority having jurisdiction affect how an HMRP is sustained through budgets and resource allocation. If those who manage and allocate financial resources aren’t aware of the HMRP and its needs, this can be an easy line item to strike when budgets are stressed. The same is true for personnel, equipment, and apparatus needs. Developing relationships and advocating for the HMRP begin with organizational leaders (e.g., fire chief and command staff) and should extend, when possible, to other municipal and elected officials.
Preplanning activities are also an important need for which time and resources should be allocated. There are too many times during critical incidents involving fixed facilities, transportation, or infrastructure when HMRP leaders are meeting other key professionals for the first time in the heat of battle. The need for conducting a thorough community risk assessment and identifying hazards for which preplanning activities should be conducted is vitally important to the safety and health of the community and emergency responders.
It’s disheartening to see examples of HMRPs being silent partners and not proactively creating key relationships with those who maintain critical information and resources to assist HMRPs with incident response and mitigation. One common example is a lack of coordination with local emergency management officials who maintain community emergency operations plans and manage Tier II reporting data. Such data is important and allows the HMRP to anticipate and prepare for hazmat incidents.
The foundation for an effective HMRP begins with fostering strong and supportive relationships with key internal stakeholders and those who allocate resources and influence organizational decision making.
External Partnerships and Opportunities
NFPA 475 includes information on developing relationships with external parties and partners. These can include federal and state agency officials, local industry, and response partners such as mutual-aid companies. Promoting the HMRP and developing relationships with external parties are key to successful program outcomes. The most common arena for this is the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). Given the federally mandated mission of the LEPC, the HMRP should maintain an active role in that planning body, which can foster strong external relationships and allow for shared awareness of HMRP capabilities, limitations, and needs.
Many LEPC relationships between industry officials and HMRP leaders have resulted in an allocation of training and equipment resources from industry to hazmat programs, which they otherwise would not have access to. These meetings also promote personal relationship building and familiarity, which occurs in the calm of a meeting environment and not during the height of critical decision making at a significant hazmat incident.
In considering HMRP external relationships, the general community should not be ignored. Community outreach should be an important aspectof HMRP planning and resource allocation (e.g., time and people). Making the community aware of the HMRP, its mission, and its capabilities can create support from the broader community, which may be useful when help and influence are needed. There is no shortage of engaging community activities. These can include the following:
- Community events (such as parades, “Touch-a-Truck” days, and block parties).
- Industrial events.
- Open houses, where members of the community come to the station to interact with HMRP members and learn about capabilities, training, and equipment.
Another great way to do community outreach is to participate in community hazardous materials “take-back” events.2 Instead of being passive and in the background, HMRP members should be front and center during these “take-back” events and interact directly with the community.
Providing hazmat prevention tips that include information and advice on household and consumer chemical hazards is another positive way to interact with the community. Here are two examples:
- HMRPs can develop a protocol with their local public safety answering point or 911 center to allow homeowners with routine questions to contact the hazmat team.
- The HMRP can work with their public information officer to publish common household hazardous materials prevention tips to the community. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency provide resources to develop these materials, which is a great way to get the HMRP’s name in front of the public.3, 4
In common culture, the public is fascinated with hazmat response. An HMRP that functions as a silent partner and does not leverage this interest does so at its own peril. Active engagement with key community stakeholders fosters opportunities for the HMRP to become better prepared and more resilient, which is beneficial to both the responders and the community they serve.
ENDNOTES
- Recommended Practice for Organizing, Managing, and Sustaining a Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Response Program. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 475, 2022. bit.ly/3TqHaDY.
- “Orange County. Hazmat Collection Events Next Month.” The Photo News, 21 Mar. 2023, bit.ly/47t0sy3.
- “Keep Your Family Safe From Household Chemicals.” United States Fire Administration (USFA), bit.ly/3Xv8Etk.
- “Household Hazardous Waste (HHW).” United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 23 Feb. 2024, bit.ly/4dZNMBo.
RICK EDINGER has worked in public safety for more than 50 years as a volunteer and career firefighter, medic, and hazmat responder. He is chair of the NFPA Technical Committee for Hazardous Materials/WMD Response. He retired in 2018 as deputy chief of operations in a large combination fire and EMS organization in Virginia. Edinger is a hazardous materials technician and served for 25 years as a member of his department’s Hazardous Incident Response Team. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science technology and is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program.
