Bloomington Township Fire Department began its Hazardous Materials
(Haz-Mat) program in 1983.
Our hazardous materials capability developed out of a lack of any agency in the area able to respond to such
emergencies. The department has gradually made improvements in apparatus and
equipment used for hazardous materials response, to become one of
Indiana Department of
Homeland Security's District 8 hazardous materials response teams. District
8 includes seven counties and encompasses over 3000 square miles. BTFD shares
this responsibility with the
Columbus Fire Department
Our hazardous materials response team is staffed by our regular department
personnel as well as volunteers. The team currently is comprised of Haz-Mat
technician and operation level responders. All members of the department are required to be at least Haz-Mat operations level. The department
regularly conducts Haz-Mat Technician classes. These classes are offered
to any firefighter that wishes to attend, and may qualify a technician not
currently serving with BTFD to respond to hazardous material runs with the
department on a mutual aid bases.
Hazardous
materials responses include gas leaks, fuel spills, and hazardous chemical
incidents. The majority of these spills are caused by motor carrier accidents.
One of our major spills was caused when an Austin Powder explosives truck
was hit head-on by a motorist on the 45/46 bypass circling Bloomington, Indiana. The motorist, who had fallen asleep at the wheel, was killed instantly. The
Austin Powder truck driver lost control of his truck and the truck rolled onto its side, spilling ammonium nitrate, fuel, and hydraulic fluid onto the
bypass. The truck was carrying 16,000 lbs of ammonium nitrate; 10,000 lbs of
ANFO (a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel); 150 gallons of diesel fuel (used
to mix with the dry ammonium nitrate); a case of 60% gel dynamite; a case of
blasting caps; and a case of boosters.
On May 14, 2003, the TravelIR Haz-Mat Chemical Identifier was added to the Bloomington Township Department of Fire & Emergency Services hazardous materials equipment inventory. This equipment was provided by the Indiana State Fire Marshal's office as part of the Indiana State emergency preparedness initiative. The TravelIR, a SensIR Technologies product, uses infrared spectroscopy technology to identify not only hazardous chemicals, but many other substances as well. BTDF&ES maintains a wide array of sophisticated chemical and biological monitoring and identifying equipment including WMD detection equipment.
Pictured
on the left is Bloomington Township Department of Fire & Emergency Services
Chief Faron Livingston operating the computer program that works in conjunction
with the TravelIR.
Bloomington Township Department of Fire & Emergency Services uses this
equipment when responding to hazardous materials incidents within our response
area as one of Indiana's eleven Render Safe Teams.
Here is another example of a common Haz-Mat run. A tractor trailer ran the red light, hit two cars, a pickup truck, and a van. The van and semi both erupted in flames. To read more Click Here
On January 10, 2004 Bloomington Township Department of Fire and Emergency Services
was toned out for "tires on fire" at the Monroe County landfill. The tires are shredded
before being used as a base for other trash that will be placed on top of them.
The picture on the left shows what looks like a lake of fire, an area approximately
100 yards X 200 yards and up to 36" deep of shredded tires burning.
The department used 200 gallons of class A foam concentrate to bring the fire under
control.
The
Landfill is a cold desolate place that reminds you of the north tundra. The
white cloud seen here on the right are the tires continuing to emit steam after a
coating of foam had been applied by Engine 53 with water support from Tanker 57.
Engine 53 is able to apply foam using the deluge gun with a special 2-1/2 inch
foam proportioning nozzle.
