Hazardous Materials Team
The Hazardous Material Response Team is comprised of over twenty dedicated firefighters and fire officers specially trained to respond to and mitigate a large variety of emergencies involving hazardous chemicals, toxic industrial materials, fuel spills, illegal dumping, and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) incidents.
Before becoming a member of the team firefighters must have taken basic Haz Mat Awareness and Operations training along with several other required courses. Once accepted as a member, the firefighters must then attend an 80 hour New Jersey State Police Hazardous Material Technician Course that provides instruction on hazard mitigation, chemical identification, incident analysis, decontamination services, personal protective equipment, and response to WMD incidents. After this basic training, members are then sent to a variety of government sponsored specialized training courses held at selected locations across the country. Included in this specialized training are courses on live agent response, radiological response, rail and tank car emergencies, response to bomb incidents, specialized decontamination services, and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) response.
We are pleased to confidently state that many of the members of our hazardous material response team have logged over 300 hours of training on various components of haz mat response. These numbers, coupled with the type of training selected makes our team one of the most highly skilled and competent response units in New Jersey. Based on these facts, we are delighted to report that in 2007 the Englewood Fire Department was chosen to support and deploy one of several mass decontamination trailers purchased by Bergen County with Homeland Security funding.
In addition to handling responses to hazardous material incidents within our city, the team also responds as a branch of the Mid Bergen Hazardous Material Team. This alliance is a regionalized haz mat unit that protects and responds to 16 individual municipalities and numerous high hazard locations in the northeastern section of Bergen County.
It is easy to recognize that the members of our team are well versed in all aspects of hazardous material response and mitigation. These devoted professional firefighters feel privileged to be able to provide the residents of our great city with prompt, effective and expert hazardous material response services. As always, we stand committed to serve and protect.