South Jordan Fire Department has recently increased its ability to respond and mitigate emergency incidents involving hazardous materials. While we have had Hazardous Materials response capability for years, within the past months the level of training and equipment has dramatically increased.
We are capable of responding to Hazardous Material incidents with up to seven Hazardous Material Technicians and this Hazardous Material Support trailer. The team is able to perform any function within the Federal mandated response capabilities of a HAZMAT team.
In conjunction with the Metro Fire Agency Departments, the team has already participated in many Hazardous Materials responses within South Jordan and our partner cities.
- To be a functioning Hazardous Materials (HM) Team a large amount of resources and training are required.
- There are 3 Main levels of HM training
- HAZMAT Awareness requires 8 hours of training
- HAZMAT Operations requires 32 hours of training
- HAZMAT Technician training requires 80-120 hours
- In addition there are some specialist positions, and South Jordan currently has 3 EMS level II paramedics which can provide Advanced Life Support in Hazardous Materials environments (40 hours of additional training).
- Our first 6 HM Technicians completed their training at the end of 2001, in preparation for the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. They worked in conjunction with neighboring Departments to provide Hazardous Materials response for the Olympics.
- In 2003 Captain Clayton Miller was trained to the HM Technician Level, and began working with fire leadership to form our team. They secured funding, planned the training, and put together the equipment to get us to our current level. The process took over 2 years and countless hours from Captain Miller's crew.
- Our Current team responses with a well equipped 26 foot trailer designated HAZMAT 61. We have 21 Hazardous Material Technicians.
- Our equipment and staffing allows us to respond and begin mitigation of serious hazardous material incidents. We work in conjunction with our Metro Fire Agency partners (West Jordan, Sandy, Midvale, South Salt Lake, Murray, Bluffdale, West Valley). We respond within South Jordan City and surrounding communities to assist their teams.
