In late October, the Fire Department received a new truck and a 20-foot-long hazardous-material trailer as part of a Department of Homeland Security grant secured by the Crawford County Sheriff's Department.
Under an agreement with the Sheriff's Department, the Pittsburg Fire Department will house the truck and trailer and train its firefighters. The Fire Department agreed to provide emergency hazardous material response anywhere in the county.
This is something Pittsburg Fire Chief Don Elmer said is beneficial to everyone.
"The equipment is very expensive, and instead of each city having to have its own set of equipment, one set of equipment can take care of the whole county," he said. "It is good for all the agencies to work together. We have to nowadays."
Elmer said two training sessions were conducted over six days so that all firefighters could attend.
Elmer said the class was a good refresher course for hazardous materials but dealt more with operations at a hazardous material site and new procedures to use when responding such a site.
"We've had a lot of hazardous material training through the years, but with the new standards they are coming out with, what we learned in operations is obsolete, so we have to start over," he said. "This was just the first step in getting certification."
Elmer said he and the firefighters learned how the new hazardous material handling procedures are to be employed.
"If there were a hazardous material spill, off-duty firefighters would be called in to cover any needs that would arise in the city, and we would send out guys with the trailer," he said. "Basically, with the training we have now, we would identify what the chemical is, how bad it is leaking, and what the next step should be."
Elmer the department's two main options when hazardous materials are found are to call the state for a full-blown hazardous-material team or to take care of it themselves.
"It really depends on what the chemical would be," he said. "If it were something we could contain ourselves and keep it from spreading, we could do that."
Elmer said the next step is for firefighters to gain hazardous-material technician certification. But he is trying to find out how many men in his department want to be certified and if there are other departments that are be interested.
He said the training would likely be in Pittsburg, but if enough other fire departments are interested, it could be at a more centrally located site.
Elmer said the Coffeyville Fire Department may be interested in attending training classes because it is trying to get a state-sponsored hazardous material team.
Another benefit of more training would be increased access to better equipment.
"Like the encapsulated suits, we can get the level B suits now, but after some guys get to be techs, we can get the level A suits," Elmer said. "Level A suits provide the highest protection against hazardous material."
And, Elmer said, the equipment coming free through Homeland Security is a major benefit to local preparedness efforts.
"This all came out of September 11, and this is basically to be prepared for an incident you weren't prepared for before, or to be more prepared for it," he said.
Elmer said he hopes to be able to purchase more equipment for the hazardous-materials trailer next year.
"We talked to the instructor when he was down here, and he gave us a list of things he thought we should get," Elmer said. "So we are going to try to work that out through next year's Homeland Security grant. What we have in the trailer is a good start, but there are a lot of things we still need."
