Originally published on ElDorado NEWS Times
Residents in the area of South Jackson Avenue and Pecan Street may have witnessed some unusual activity Tuesday in their neighborhood.
Firefighters and members of the Arkansas National Guard suited up in protective gear to participate in the first round of training exercises to held at the site of the El Dorado Fire Department’s new mobile training unit.
The session focused on hazardous materials and EFD Chief Chad Mosby said it was the first of what he hopes to be many more training sessions to come at the new facility.
Made of modified shipping containers, the unit was built and delivered in early July by an Arizona-based vendor. The facility is located on the lot that was occupied by the former Southside Elementary School.
The facility is equipped with a rappelling tower, standpipe system, pitched roof prop, forced entry door and interior and exterior stairs and other features that can improve firefighter training.
The project was made possible by a $500,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a contribution of $200,000 from the El Dorado Works tax to cover a 10% match for the grant and $150,000 for site preparation.
Mosby previously explained that the unit must be used as a regional training facility that is available at no cost to fire departments in Union County and south Arkansas.
The accommodation is also extended to fire brigades at area industries and emergency units such as the Civil Support Team from the Arkansas National Guard in Little Rock.
Mosby said Tuesday’s training session with the 61st was scheduled a month ago and members of the EFD’s Special Operations Response Team and the military unit awaited “good weather and their (the 61st’s) availability to come” to El Dorado for the first training session at the new facility.
“Hazardous materials training is pretty important for us, being a regional special response team for South Arkansas,” Mosby said. “Anytime we can train with a HAZMAT team like the 61st — it’s their full-time job in the military —, they’re subject-area experts on weapons of mass destruction and hazardous materials response.”
“We occasionally do joint exercises with them and they look for opportunities to get to different parts of the state,” he continued. “They’re stationed in Little Rock and when it’s south Arkansas, they always reach out and we try to do some joint training at every opportunity we can.”
Tuesday’s session got underway at 8 a.m. with about 20 members of the EFD’s Special Operations Response Team. Dozens of soldiers with the 61st arrived about an hour and a half later, Mosby said.
The subject area of the day was HAZMAT, with a focal point on clandestine labs.
“That’s usually things like meth labs or places where people are cooking chemicals or making some type of weaponized … or chemical weapon of some sort,” the fire chief said.
Outside temperatures hovered around a high of about 90 degrees, which can be more intense inside full-body HAZMAT protective gear that is made of rubber and plastic and inside a metal building that is fully exposed to the sun.
“Temperatures are getting high right now and its pretty warm in here. We’re trying to keep as much air circulating through the building as possible and we’re trying to keep everybody hydrated,” Mosby said.
“You take the sun and the heat inside the building and put on totally encapsulated suits and it’s kind of like wearing a plastic bubble. It doesn’t let sweat evaporate like it should and it’ll get quite warm pretty quickly,” he added.
The one-day training session was set to wrap around 4 or 5 p.m. and was to be followed by an after-action meeting conducted by HAZMAT technicians from the Pulaski County Office of Emergency Management, who were on-site to evaluate the day’s training exercises.
“Once we conduct several training evolutions, we’re going to regroup. Typically, when we do drills like this, we’ll go through several scenarios and once that’s done, we’ll go through a checklist,” Mosby said. “(The 61st) will run through general exercises and we’ll do joint exercises with them, side by side. We’ll learn some of the techniques they bring to the table and try to incorporate that into our standard operating procedures.”
“We have the Pulaski County (Office of Emergency Management) here and they’re going to tell us our strengths, where our weaknesses are and where we can improve to make a better response in the hazardous materials emergency response realm,” Mosby said.
He said HAZMAT units throughout the state routinely partner with each other to share tools, resources and ideas.
“We have to pull in HAZMAT technicians across state and they can integrate seamlessly with us or we can integrate seamlessly with them if we need to call on each other for help,” Mosby said.
Throughout the day, neighborhood residents, passersby and curious onlookers visited the site, he said.
“All of the comments have been positive and we’ve enjoyed having them stop by and take interest in what we’re doing over here,” he said.
