This 60-member, all-volunteer hazmat team, the Ninth Company, is one of three teams protecting Conception, Chile, which extends 86 square miles with a population of about 240,000.

Because of the volunteer nature of the service, the team makeup is diverse. It is common, organizers say, to have an 18-year-old person and a 50-year-old performing the same duties.

As interesting as its make up is, the team’s origin goes back decades and also highlights its diversity.

The first attempts to create a fire company in the city came in 1967. That effort faltered. However, the residents of the city’s northern sector were hard-work, with a strong working-class and community spirit. By the end of 1968 and the beginning of 1969, a group of neighbors took on the task of attempting once again to form a fire company.

This time, the effort was led by a woman, Carmen Rosa Ramírez. It was the first time a woman was driving the creation of a new company in Concepción. She was an employee of the Simón Bolívar radio station, and was the driving force behind this new firefighting unit.

Her efforts succeeded and she was named the “Godmother of the Foundation of the Ninth Company of CBC.”

The Ninth Company became one of the pioneers of adding the first female firefighters in Concepción. Today, women firefighters constitute 30% of the total members of the Ninth Company, giving this fire unit of the Concepción Fire Department the highest percentage of female firefighters.

The team holds monthly training sessions. Additionally, it is in the process of being accredited as the Hazmat Operational Work Group Concepción. This will enable it to handle emergencies at both local and regional levels. This requirement keeps the team in constant training.

The Ninth Company also trains with the other two hazmat teams who cover the city. They conduct both theoretical and practical exercises specific to various areas of hazmat training.

The team has a long history of emergencies involving hazardous materials. Among these, they have responded to a suicide emergency involving cyanide, fuel truck rollovers, and a fire at the chemistry faculty of the University of Concepción, following the 2010 earthquake in Chile.

The team’s biggest current challenge is housing. Their new fire station has been under construction for more than 3 years, and has not yet been completed. For now, the team is operating out of a mechanic’s workshop, which has been adapted to accommodate the units and personnel.

Those units include the main hazmat incident response rig, a 2017 Iveco Magirus truck. It serves multiple functions including firefighting, vehicle rescue support, and, of course, hazardous materials emergency response. It carries 4,000 liters of water. The team is expecting a new unit dedicated solely to firefighting, which will allow this unit to be used exclusively as a hazmat unit.

The team does not have a dedicated foam unit, but can carry four drums of 20 liters each, as well as 100-liter drums of foam concentrate at the station.