HAZMAT (Dangerous Substances).....

Our brigade is a specialised HAZMAT (Hazardous Material or Dangerous Substance) brigade. This means that we carry additional equipment and have extra training to be able to deal with incidents involving hazardous materials. Hazardous Materials are basically any substance - whether solid, liquid or gaseous - which is toxic, corrosive, flammable or otherwise dangerous. Examples are acids, toxic gases, petroleum products, explosives, bio-hazards, radioactive materials, oxidizing agents, compresses gases and poisons to name but a few. These things are found everywhere from the family shed to hospitals or industrial premises and can be very dangerous.

As a HAZMAT brigade we have to be able to identify HAZMAT incidents, perform rescues when necessary, extinguish fire where practical, render the spillage/fire safe, protect the environment from further pollution and reduce the risk to the public at large. We may be required to perform some cleaning up, removal and dilution or containment of a substance but that depends on each situation. We wear special protective clothing and have to follow very strict procedures from the time we arrive at the scene right through to the point of decontaminating or destroying every piece of our equipment we used. Some times we have to bring in other resources and equipment to deal with particular substances if our own equipment is insufficient for a job.


'Splash Suit'

These suits can be worn with CABA (Breathing Apparatus) inside them and are only 'splash resistant' in conjunction with PVC boots and gloves (we have 6 of these suits). For additional protection we may be required to use fully gas-tight suits (we carry two of those on our Pumper appliance) with CABA or call in other agencies for assistance in extreme situations.

Other special HAZMAT equipment we have includes:

Compressed Air Breathing Apparatus (Positive Pressure)
Brushes, bags and other cleaning gear
Denso putty
'Over-drums' for sealing damaged or leaking drums, etc.
Small dam for contained decontaminations

but other resources are available in close proximity such as additional 'splash' or gas-tight suits, dry decontamination resources, air-lines, etc.