This afternoon staff from our fire department participated with members of our police department assigned to a special tactical team. Without getting into the details too much, the fire department’s role was to perform decontamination operations. Our fire department is one of 8 in Hennepin County that has a “Life Safety Unit”. The unit is a tandem axle trailer. The purpose of the equipment is be able to provide mobile and rapid decontamination of anybody exposed to chemical, biological or radiological materials on-scene.
Today’s drill happened without a lot of fanfare or media coverage. Drills like this one are an important part of the ongoing training taking place around the country on a daily basis. In the picture below you see firefighters helping prepare officers to enter the decontamination “tent”. Our staff has spent a lot of time training with this equipment, the equipment can be deployed in under 7 minutes, including hot water showers, special soaps and post decon garments. “Plan for the worst and hope for the best”, is the motto of these kinds of operations.




