Serving the needs of a growing community ... with Pride, Courage and Integrity.
The Trussville Fire hazardous materials unit is
dedicated to the response to and mitigation of hazardous materials
incidents. The Trussville Fire hazardous materials unit is one of five
active units that cover Jefferson County.
With the combined efforts of all units along with the Jefferson County
Emergency Management Agency, the Trussville Fire hazardous materials unit
covers not only the city limits of Trussville, but also any area within Jefferson County that EMA needs the unit to
respond. By doing this it has allowed the fire department hazardous
materials unit to receive equipment and supplies that are needed to cover
the city of Trussville. This equipment
includes; detection devises for radiological, chemical, and biological
incidents, detection devises for a variety of gasses including carbon
monoxide and flammable gasses. The unit also carries personal protective
equipment such as Level A, Level B, and Level C suits, SCBAs and supplied
air equipment.
The
Trussville Fire hazardous material team consists of thirty eight hazardous
materials technicians. All employees and many volunteers have completed a
hazardous material awareness and operations course. This course consists of
forty hours of academic with a competency test and a final exercise to
evaluate skills learned through the course. Once this course is completed
the fire fighter must then attend a forty to fifty hour Hazardous Materials
Technician course that builds on the prior skills. This course also has a
competency test and a field exercise. Fire fighters obtain this training
from the Alabama Fire Collage and the
w:st="on">University of Alabama at Birmingham’s CLEAR Program. Both programs are
very thorough and place emphases on fire fighter safety. The Trussville Fire
hazardous materials team, working with EMA, ADEM, OSHA, The US Coast Guard,
and The Department of Defense will continue to provide safe and efficient
hazardous materials mitigation for years to come.
