Yeah, it's a process.

Hazmat! The dreaded word. It can mean danger, mess, or an extended boring call that lasts forever. What we got last night was a little bit of all of the above but mostly in the last category.

An alarm call came in for our local gas refinery about 8:30 pm. We go there frequently for high gas alarms caused by surges or spikes or errors and rarely is it anything requiring mitigation. The refinery is actually in the next district over but it is right on the border and we almost always get there first (I have to start driving slower). The place is a big hazard though, full of methyl ethyl bad stuff and if it ever really blows it's going to be a big problem.

We met up with the plant workers who are usually very helpful in informing us of what the problem is and what product we might be dealing with. Tonight they were clueless and really just milled about offering no assistance whatever. We finally got someone on scene who knew what was happening and based on which sensors were going and where the problem was it seemed we did have a leak or other problem this time. This led to a call to dispatch with those three special words, "Assemble the team", or something like that. The County Hazmat team was mobilized and on their way to our city. A Level A Entry was about to go down. Level A is a fully encapsulated suit complete with SCBA inside used for hazardous atmospheres and potential chemical exposure.

This means that we also had to set up a decontamination corridor to scrub down the entry team when they came back. And that meant three more personnel in Level B suits to do the decon.

The entry and decon teams all need Medical Monitoring before and after the incident to check changes in their vital signs and/or weight to make sure they are safe to continue working. As the first arriving unit we were initial IC (Incident Command) and as the paramedic on our crew I was assigned Medical Monitoring. I set up chairs and monitors and lights off to the side, enlisted another medic and an EMT to assist me and started filling out forms with all the team members info.

Next, the teams had to assemble all their gear and suits. The County guys hopped to it and were rapidly ready to get this thing moving. The plant personnel was not quite so speedy. In fact the same guys who were milling about clueless when we arrived turned out to be the ERT (emergency response team) members as well. With a little direction and prodding from the fire department they got ready to make the entry.

The media had shown up by this time and was filming the proceedings so everybody had to behave even though we had been standing around in the cold for about an hour and a half now and were quite bored. It can be hard for a social group like firemen to stand around for that long without assignments or work to do and still behave themselves with a level of decorum befitting the potential emergency at hand (we tend to start joking, teasing, practicing golf swings, etc).

The team finally went in and flipped the switch that needed flipping to end this whole scenario and went through the decon process and were medically re-evaluated. Again, as the initial unit on scene we were last to leave, assisting in the clean up, information gathering, paperwork, etc.

It was past 11:30 when we finally wrapped up and went back to the station. Fortunately, after a shower and a midnight snack I was able to go to bed. My captain however, had the entire incident report to write which had to include everything that happened, what each unit did (there were three engines, a truck, and the three hazmat rigs to account for), info from the plant about the product, all the paperwork gathered, etc.

He was still working on it the next day.