Haz-Mat Class

Last night was my second class session attending the Hazardous Materials First Responder Operations conducted by the NYS Office of Fire Prevention & Control with the final two sessions to take place next week. It's a 16 hour class and as anyone that knows anything about Haz-Mat, that amount training time is just one block of many to know about how things work. There's another Haz-Mat class starting tonight at one of the local fire departments, which is a good thing because the more fire fights that take these classes the more aware they are of the “Mr. Yuk” .

The training is good and informative and even though I've taken many of these classes in the past, I always like attending them because it keeps me up-to-date for one as well as knowing what are the latest and greatest prospective from others who attend & from the instructor.

One of the areas covered and what has become a very common book that is on every emergency rig and control center is the 2008 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG). A great little book that contains a wealth of information for the emergency responder to immediately reference to on the emergency scene. For Haz-Mat this book is a starting point to be used prior to entering the "Hot Zone." Here's a short video about it...




The 2008 ERG is one of my favorite publications because it quickly and efficiently breaks it all down to get a Haz-Mat operation going at the start. With the internet, there's a .pdf copy of it online too at the US Dept Transportation-PHMSA. Click on: 2008 Emergency Response Guidebook and it'll show you an on-line version if you don't have a hard copy. Fire departments could make it a drill night to go over and review this very important Orange Book.

I make it a point to know where these books are located at be it at my local fire department or where I work at. The best part of the class is all students were give a FREE copy to have for their own. I thought that was pretty cool even though the 2008 ERG is a FREE publication. I just think it's neat getting something for FREE and it's a very valuable item that could save a live.