1 station decon

[mpardue]

I had read in a trade magazine before about a department that performed decon in one station only. Doing this allowed them to use less people in the warm zone and less taxing on the department personnel. Does anyone use this system and do they have any information on it, procedures, SOG's etc?

Thanks

[gdsqdcr]

What do you mean by 1 station only. I am positive it is not what I am thinking.

Anthony

[mpardue]

I believe it was in Ohio, a company their was assigned in a regional response to decon. They used only one station to do their responder decon (wash/rinse) then preceded to a dry and undress. Just curious if anyone else uses this type system. We only have about 10 techs a shift and don't personnel for a sustained incident.

[WJVaughn]

I have 20 techs available and would not be able to maintain sustained ops long without some mutual aid. Working on training area depts up to doing the decon for us.

[mpardue]

Get me some contact information and we will see what we can do.

[gdsqdcr]

At my company, everyone on our team is FRO trained at minimum. This allows them to do decon. If we need additional resources, we can (and have) called our local FD who is also at minimum FRO trained.

As for 1 station vs 2 station decon, it all depends on the chemical you are dealing with. Some hazards will require a 2 station decon. The decision on 1 station vs 2 station should come from the Tech Ref once they start their 'research' into the chemical.

Most of what I deal with is a 1 station decon. If we were dealing with a messy dry powder, I would prefer the 2 station decon.


Anthony

[Geinandputitout]

It all depends on the site that you are working on. If it is Ammonia or something that does not stick around, using a one station "Bag and Stash" decon is perfectly acceptable in the emergency response. Assuming that you are using Level a suits for skin irritants or encapsulating level b's for chemicals with a high respiratory hazard.

If you are working on a Waste Site covered by EPA then you've got to use the six-step decon prescribed by the EPA.