Last night’s training drill was all about dealing with Hazardous Materials Incidents. While big Haz Mat incidents have been rare in our city, when they do happen they require a lot of well trained responders to gain the upper hand. We are very fortunate in our city that the Hopkins Fire Department is so close by and operates one of the state’s Chemical Assessment Teams. The Hopkins Fire Department provides us with quick and expert response for all things related to Haz Mat. Last night they brought their stuff over to refresh our firefighters on the various capabilities that they have and get some hands-on training with their team and their stuff.
One of the great innovations that has been developed is using a tower truck, like our Tower 21 to create a quick way to decon a lot of people in a short amount of time. This system can be set up in about 15 minutes and can handle hundreds of people per hour, that need a quick decon process because they were exposed to some sort of chemical that needs to be rinsed off before they can be treated medically. The pictures below show just how simple and yet effective this process is. All you need is a tower truck, a good water supply and a big tarp (40′ x 80′ in this case). Once in place the people needing decon just walk slowly through the tunnel formed by the tarp and water is showered down from above by nozzles placed along the ladder device.
Eden Prairie and Hopkins Fire Departments go back a long way, in fact Hopkins provided a lot of the fire coverage to Eden Prairie before Eden Prairie formed it’s own Fire Department in 1967. Having a trusted partner like the Hopkins Fire Department makes our ability to deal with Haz Mat incidents just that much more effective, and that is good for our citizens and our firefighters alike.
Below are pictures of the large “Tool box” truck and trailer that Hopkins Fire brings to Haz Mat incidents, they have stuff!
