Hazmatters Private Outfit Blends Hazmat, SWAT, Medical and Rescue With less than three years under its belt, Maryland-based RANT Strategies is combining technical training for high-risk scenarios across multiple emergency response disciplines. RANT Strategies’ instructors are all current law enforcement officers in special operations branches from one the busiest SWAT teams in the nation, sniper team leaders, K-9, aviation, major incident response teams and […] Written by Phil Ambrose May 19, 2022May 19, 2022
Hazmatters Big Hazmat Dogs Running in the big Hazmat Yard The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, better known as Metro Fire, serves 358 square miles and a population north of 738,000. When you add in an agreement with the Sacramento County Environment Management Department, Metro Fire’s Hazardous Materials Response Team covers the entire 995 square miles of Sacramento County and its 1.5 million residents, including the […] Written by Phil Ambrose April 28, 2022April 28, 2022
Hazmatters Vollie Hazmat Team Trains Hard in PA In 1986, hazmat was a novel idea that was the talk of the fire service community in Somerset County, Pa. Then, a sizable oil spill occurred in the county and they had to ask for help from the neighboring county’s hazmat team. That was the teaching moment that led to Somerset forming the Hazmat Response […] Written by Phil Ambrose April 15, 2022April 18, 2022
Hazmatters Georgia Hazmat Team Levels Up When a major incident garners worldwide attention in your backyard, it can influence your readiness capabilities for generations to come. The Centennial Park terrorist bombings during the 1996 summer Olympic games in Atlanta did not cause neighboring Cobb County to form a hazmat team — one had been in place for 15 years. But more […] Written by Phil Ambrose January 28, 2022January 28, 2022
Hazmatters Brazil Hazmat Team Meets Private Industry Challenge In the Suzano section of Sao Paulo, Brazil, a private-industry hazmat, fire, rescue and EMS team protects a 30,000-square-foot industrial site. The team is divided into four groups of seven members, with each trained to the hazmat technician level. In 2021, one of the four groups alone saw four hazardous product leaks, two fires and […] Written by Phil Ambrose January 14, 2022January 14, 2022
Hazmatters Florida Hazmat Team Tackles Natural, Manmade Threats Sandwiched between Tampa and Orlando, Polk County Fire Rescue’s hazmat team must be ready for both manmade and natural threats. The county stretches across 2,011 square miles and has a population of about 725,000. The county often finds itself in the path of hurricanes and other tropical storms, which can create hazmat and technical rescue […] Written by Phil Ambrose December 30, 2021December 30, 2021
Hazmatters Hazmat Team Helps Keep Magic Alive at Magic Kingdom Prior to the pandemic, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom saw nearly 21 million visitors in 2019 — that’s 1.7 million people per month. To put that in perspective, the entire state of Florida has about 22 million residents. New York City has a population of 8 million. Throw in the populations of Bay Lake and […] Written by Phil Ambrose December 10, 2021December 10, 2021
Hazmatters Brazil Volunteer Hazmat Team Touts Dedication Nestled in the far southeastern corner of Brazil, is a 71-member volunteer fire-based hazardous materials team. Eldorado do Sul is a suburban town near the city Porto Alegre, both in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul. The municipality home to 42,000 sits near where the Guaiba River empties into Guaiba Lake, which is […] Written by Phil Ambrose October 8, 2021October 8, 2021
Hazmatters Tenn. Hazmat Team is City and Regional Resource It is impossible to overstate how much 9/11 changed the U.S. fire service. What’s easy to forget is the rash of suspicious white powder calls that sprung up in mailrooms around the country following the terror attacks when anthrax-laced letters were sent to newsrooms, politicians and the FBI. Yet it was just those calls that […] Written by Phil Ambrose September 30, 2021September 30, 2021