25/August/2012 – HazMat Training Course

Fifteen Colleton Firefighters completed the SC Fire Academy’s forty hour Hazardous Materials Technician Training Program during August. The specialty training is provided at Fire-Rescue Station # 19 in the Industrial Area. The class covers a multitude of material preparing the students to recognize potential threats and how to safely mitigate the emergency. Firefighters learned how to research and identify materials through a variety of resources; how to conduct and monitor air quality tests; test for radiation leakage and to safely isolate chemical or other hazardous materials leaks. Personnel learned how to use a variety of safety attire from fully encapsulated chemical suits to less cumbersome attire and how to decontaminate victims and other responders. The plastic suits were extremely hot in the high August temperatures. The final scenario conducted most of the day on Saturday 25-August involved the students using their newly learned skills mitigating a leak involving two chemicals. They had to identify the chemicals involved, rescue a victim, decontaminate the victim and seal the leak. All of the students passed the training course giving Colleton County a total of fifty four personnel trained as Hazardous Materials Technicians.