When one of the best-known nuclear incidents happened in your backyard, you take hazmat response seriously. Dauphin County, Pa. is home to Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, which famously had a nuclear core meltdown in 1979.

Historic hazmat incidents aside, the county has 558 square miles, a population of roughly 268,000 and Harrisburg as its seat. In 1995, the county formed the Dauphin County Hazardous Materials Response Team, which now has 35 members who respond to about 60 calls per year. In 2021 the team acquired a dedicated station and has a duty officer available round the clock.

The team maintains a state-level certification through the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and functions as part of the Dauphin County Department of Public Safety. The team is also recognized at the 75% level for the Participating Department Recognition Program through the Office of the State Fire Commissioner. For this listing, over 75% of the membership must have an active Pro-Board Certification, which is a nationally recognized standard for training.

The members are a combination of volunteer and career firefighters who come from various agencies.

They train more than 60 times per year on weekdays, nights and weekends. That training includes train exercises with other fire departments, police and EMS, and state and federal response teams including other hazardous materials teams.

The team’s main apparatus, Hazmat 77, is a walkaround rescue rig that carries various types of equipment that includes WMD, spill control and other response tools. The 24/7 duty officer vehicle carries all the specialized (high- and low-tech) equipment. The team also has three other vehicles that provide support roles for various types of responses — one with a clean area that allows for sensitive investigations of various hazards.

While the team has enjoyed success serving multiple counties and by achieving continuous recertification as a Type II team in the state, they do struggle with keeping members motivated. That struggle, they say, is likely due to aging team members and relatively low call volume.

And the Three Mile Island generating plant, it closed for good in 2019.