New Course Aims to Improve Responses to Hazardous Materials Incidents
(English * Español)
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Firefighters return to the base camp following an exercise to apply the lessons of the course. |
November 2007
Instructors, participants and observers of a new advanced course for Latin American firefighters charged with responding to emergencies involving hazardous materials deemed the experience a resounding success. The two-week course was held for the first time in late November 2007, in San José, Costa Rica.
“The results have been excellent. This course is very much needed to maintain security and control hot zones during incidents,” said Alex Araya, a course instructor and chief of the Firefighters Unit in the central Pacific port city of Puntarenas.
Sixteen firefighters from Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala and Panama participated. The course was developed by Costa Rica’s Firefighters Corps and the University of Costa Rica (UCR) with technical support from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) involving experts from the Argentina-based Chemistry Information Center for Emergencies (CIQUIME) and Los Angeles County Fire Department in the U.S. state of California.
“The course definitely meets a need in the region,” said CIQUIME chemist Diego Nahuel Gotelli, who for the past 10 years has been involved in periodically updating the USAID/OFDA course for firefighters entitled “First Response to Hazardous Materials Incidents,” known by its Spanish acronym PRIMAP and based on a first-level response as defined by Norm 472 of the U.S. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
The new course, entitled “Operations to Respond to Incidents Involving Dangerous Materials,” exceeds the requirements of an NFPA Level II course, according to Gotelli.
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Participants learn how to don the equipment and protective gear required during a response. |
Taught by Costa Rican firefighters, it is divided into three modules: one covering Chemistry, designed with input from CIQUIME; a second covering Personal Protection and Instrument Usage in Determining Danger Levels, with input from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and a third on Planning and Operations, with input from USAID/OFDA experts in disaster response.
“USAID/OFDA is proud to be supporting this effort with the Firefighters of Costa Rica,” said Senior Regional Advisor Tim Callaghan.
The success of the course represents the long-term vision of USAID/OFDA’s involvement in this important area of disaster prevention and response, which began in 1995 with the launch of a regional hazardous materials program. Since then, demand for the PRIMAP course has grown alongside awareness of the potential threats involved in producing, transporting, storing, and using hazardous materials. The increased awareness sparked demand for more advanced training directed toward firefighters so they can provide an improved technical response to incidents involving chemicals.
In 2004, Costa Rica’s Firefighters Corps began sending its personnel to a basic chemistry course at the University of Costa Rica. Not long after, recognizing the value of the methodology used by USAID/OFDA and the need for an advanced course to be presented on a more consistent basis, the Firefighters requested USAID/OFDA’s support to develop a more comprehensive course.
“I’m very impressed with all the work they’ve done, and I believe this course will really help firefighters a lot in managing this type of emergency,” said Ed Hernandez, who heads a hazardous materials task force for the Los Angeles County Fire Department and visited Costa Rica to observe the November 12-23 trial run of the course.
“The chemistry portion is quite user-friendly,” said Goldie Gómez, a chemical engineer and chief of the Hazardous Materials Team of the Volunteer Firefighter Brigade in Envigado, Colombia. “The methodology used is quite agile, and I discovered you can cover in one week what you might take a year to cover in a university.”
Gómez said the method is so simple and so successful she plans to adopt it for her trainings back in Colombia.
“When they teach you chemistry as a profession, they don’t tell you how to manage emergencies involving chemicals. Now, I have a much better idea how to apply my profession to firefighter response operations,” she said.
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Firefighters practice their newly acquired knowledge of operations to contain hazardous materials. |
Worldwide, Gotelli said, about 4,000 new chemical substances are registered every day. It would be practically impossible for anyone to know them all. The course provides an applied knowledge by grouping substances into 30 families based on their uses and reactions, so firefighters can gain an ample understanding of the subject.
“Providing an introduction to chemistry in just five days is truly a novelty,” said Carlos Quesada, a 35-year veteran whose idea it was to create the specialized course. “We never imagined that a firefighter would be teaching chemistry to other firefighters. But the process has afforded much better assimilation of the subject.”
Quesada said he aims to provide the course to at least 100 Costa Rican firefighters next year, and eventually reach all 470 of the nation’s firefighters.
“Ten years ago, we had 300 gas leaks a year. Today, we respond to 800 gas leaks a year. There are new chemicals; industry is growing. We face all sorts of risks, and we need to be prepared,” he said, adding he is grateful to USAID/OFDA for its commitment to developing firefighters’ capabilities.
Gotelli agreed, noting the new course will likely be replicated in other Latin American countries. “Everyone wants this course. Everyone has been waiting for it,” he said.
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