Hazmat Exercise Moc Drill

Imagine a dangerous hazmat spill right in our backyards. how would first responders handle it? lo...  More »

Imagine a dangerous hazmat spill right in our backyards. how would first responders handle it? local rescuers don't have to imagine. they had the next best thing...hands-on practice in a mock drill. wdef news 12's nordia epps shows us ... in this safe families report. a potentially deadly chemical spews into the air at tennessee american water company's facility on amnicola highway. people are down. first responders suit up. bruce garner, chattanooga fire department, "what they're wearing are called level a encapsulated suits. they have their own air supply and the material they're wearing protects them from hazardous substances ". and gear up. garner, "they have various devices, kits and things like that that would plug the leak or shut off a valve to render the situation safe." this time it's only a drill. harmless smoke... and mock victims... jessica presley, "they're doing a great job acting, uh, coughing here and there so it's going really well." everything else though is real. garner, "this is really good practice for them." so they're ready shld it ever not be just an exercise. garner, "we try to hold drills like this on an annual basis and uh area companies often volunteer do that. garner, "it's a lot of effort, a lot of work goes into it but it's worthwhile because it gives us all a chance to test our response capabilities with ourselves and also with the company that might have the accident so it's good for all of us." this time tennessee american volunteered for the hands-on lesson. presley, the likelihood of tennessee american water actually having a spill is low, however we wanted to participate and partner with our local emergency responders for the drill." with the leak capped...it's time for the clean up garner, "when they get done responding to the scene they go back and they get into a decontamination shower and all of that material, whatever's on them is washed off with brushes and soap and water." and later...a debriefing to evaluate lessons learned. in chattanooga nordia epps wdef news 12. first responders also tested the local public notification procedures... including hamilton county's reverse 9-1-1 system and the emergency alert system. besides chattanooga firefighters and police, the e-p-a, erlanger, memorial and parkridge participated in today's exercise.  « Less