HazMat Operations Training for Emergency Responders – 5 part series

Emergency response crews must be prepared to deal with incidents involving hazardous materials. This five-part series on HazMat Operations explores the steps emergency responders must follow to safely and efficiently deal with a hazardous materials accident.

The first course, Hazmat Operations 1: Reconnaissance, discusses the initial response. Crew members learn how to assess the situation and determine next steps based on container markings, facility & pipeline markings, pesticide labels and radioactive package markings.

In Hazmat Operations 2:  Containers, workers learn at the operations level about the specific containers and containment systems used to hold and transport hazardous materials. This knowledge can be applied while planning out response tactics, based on the material and emergency at hand.
Hazmat Operations 3: Forecasting Events teaches emergency response crews to apply knowledge of the chemical and physical properties of a material to the prediction of events. Crew members learn how to understand the risks and potential outcomes of the emergency at hand, and determine the actions to take which will yield the best results.

In the fourth installment, Hazmat Operations 4: Organizing the Response, workers learn about the Incident Command System. They also learn about wearing and selecting the proper personal protective equipment, as well as decontamination procedures to consider before taking action at an emergency site.
Finally, Hazmat Operations 5: Tactics helps emergency responders how to evaluate and implement different tactics, based on the strategies determined at the command level. Topics include search & rescue, spill & leak control, confinement tactics, containment tactics, and firefighting.