The IAFC, in conjunction with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and state-based agencies, is taking action to ensure rural fire departments throughout the United States are prepared to protect their communities and personnel from the dangers posed by the transport of hazardous materials.
The IAFC Hazardous Materials Response program provides free cutting-edge resources and training packages focused on traditional hazmat challenges and keeps responders up to date on the threats posed by the constantly evolving hazmat and alternative-fuels environment.
While educational resources are available to all fire departments, the IAFC recognized the specific challenges of rural communities where the volume of hazardous materials being transported over rail and roads often outpaces locally available response training, equipment and support.
National Perspective, Local Connection
As part of this larger education effort, the IAFC is pleased to announce it's working in conjunction with the FRA and the Iowa State Training Bureau to bring technical training, real-world experience and local networking together at the 2012 Iowa Hazmat Symposium (pdf) on October 18-19 in Ames, Iowa. It's the first in a series of programs presented collaboratively with state-based agencies.
The IAFC, supported by the FRA, is sponsoring three sessions at the symposium:
- Rail Incident Operations and Future Commodities, presented by Patrick Brady, CIH, CSP, assistant director of hazardous materials at BNSF Railway, will familiarize participants with hazmat regulations related to land and rail transportation. This workshop addresses the perspectives of the rail, hazmat and emergency-response industries.
- Columbus, Ohio, Rail Ethanol Incident will feature William E. Brobst Jr., of the City of Columbus Division, who'll present lessons learned from this summer's derailment in a case study focused on incident response, interagency collaboration and an in-depth discussion on local preparedness.
- MutualAidNet is an IAFC program that provides a resource database and dispatch system to be used by states to more quickly and efficiently request and provide the closest, most appropriate resources to a major incident. T.J. Lyon, technical advisor for MutualAidNet, will provide an overview of the program, with details on how states engaged the system. Lessons will be drawn from the eight states currently using this system and the five additional states in the process of coming online.
Additional Resources Available from the IAFC: