‘We have to be prepared’: Provincial hazmat response teams run emergency scenarios in North Bay

All six of the provincial hazmat response teams were in North Bay this week to put their emergency response skills to the test in friendly competitions.

Provincial hazardous materials response teams gathered in North Bay, Ont., this week to test their emergency response capabilities through two challenging scenarios at 22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base and the adjacent Jack Garland Airport.

The exercises marked the culmination of three days of intensive training in the city, where the local fire department serves as a key component of Ontario’s provincial hazmat response system under the leadership of the Ontario Fire Marshal.

“We have to be prepared for what might happen. If and when it does, we’re prepared for it,” said North Bay fire Capt. Chris Cuthbertson, who also serves as a hazardous materials technician for the province.

Strategic position as regional response hub

Cuthbertson described the region as a “hub” featuring an airport, rail tracks and two major highways that connect northern Ontario to the south. He noted that having a team capable of responding and travelling either north or south is critical to the hazmat “response game plan,” ready to be dispatched at a moment’s notice. The response catchment area extends as far north as Timmins, Cochrane, Kapuskasing, and Wawa.

The North Bay fire department maintains a suppression team of 72 personnel and has been part of the provincial response team since its inception in 2003-04.

“Every time we do a recruitment, the expectation is that the new recruits are going to go through the hazardous materials technician program,” Cuthbertson said.

“As of right now, over half of our department is at a level of a hazardous materials technician.”

Real-Life lessons from the ‘Great Formaldehyde Spill’

The first scenario emergency responders tackled involved a hazmat response to a Dash 8 passenger airplane that made an emergency landing at the airport after a chemical from a university student science project spilled mid-flight and leaked onto other passengers, causing injury, inhalation concerns and irritation. The second scenario involved a hazmat response to a clandestine drug lab at a property on the military base.

“Whether it’s a motor vehicle collision with fuels that have been spilled or even our structure fires some of the products of combustion in itself or hazardous materials,” Cuthbertson said.

The teams formed and began their training following the events of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001.

“We have had local incidents. I always refer to it as the ‘Great Formaldehyde Spill of 2012’. It was out on Highway 63,” said Cuthbertson.

“We ended up having to evacuate all the residents of Silver Lady Lane for approximately a week. Then we had the remediation crew in there from down south from Hamilton for well over six months and they ended up having to neutralize the formaldehyde that was saturated into the ground with hydrogen peroxide.”

Provincial network, future expansion plans

The response network consists of six specialized municipal fire teams strategically located across the province to handle chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives (CBRNE) incidents. The teams are based in North Bay, Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor, Thunder Bay and Peterborough, providing 24/7 technical-level response capabilities.

“North Bay has been a great asset for us,” said Chad Harvey, program specialist with the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office.

“Starting last year, North Bay has been the host to basically coordinate and take on all of our provincial teams.”

Cuthbertson said that if volunteer fire departments encounter an incident where they become overwhelmed by the type of call, they can contact the province and one of the specialist teams will respond. The teams work together, often with the OPP and local police services, to coordinate and manage complex hazmat responses including transportation emergencies, illicit drug labs and industrial accidents.

There is hope that one day the North Bay fire department will be able to expand its operations into a full CBRNE Team.

“It’s a terrorist response team so that we could be involved with the police and paramedics as far as tactical operations,” Cuthbertson said.

“That way, we would be the northern entity for that.”