January 21, 2004
2004-03
The Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) has recently received several requests
for information on how to access the resources of the chemical, biological,
radiological, nuclear (CBRN) response teams and heavy urban search and rescue (HUSAR)
teams operating under memorandums of understanding (MOU) with the Government of
Ontario and available to respond to significant emergencies across the province.
In this context, significant emergency is defined as:
where
An update on the CBRN response and HUSAR teams and a brief outline of
activation procedures are provided below.
CBRN Response Teams
The OFM has provided Ontario fire departments with access to self-study training
at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 472 Awareness Level,
that is, Level 1.
The NFPA Standard 472, Professional Competence of
Responders to Hazardous Materials Incidents, covers minimum competencies
of persons responding to hazardous materials incidents and specifies three
levels:
The Province of Ontario currently has memorandums of understanding with
Windsor, Toronto and Ottawa. Under these agreements, teams from the Windsor,
Toronto and Ottawa fire departments are available to respond to hazardous
materials and CBRN emergencies at the NFPA Standard 472 Technician Level. The
teams are now operational and can be deployed to incidents that fall within the
category of “significant emergency.” A minimum of 12 fire department staff
members trained to the Technician level would respond upon activation.
The Province of Ontario also has memorandums of understanding with Thunder Bay,
Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Peterborough and Cornwall. Under these agreements,
teams from the Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Peterborough and
Cornwall fire departments will be capable of response at the NFPA Standard 472
Operations Level. The Province has provided initial training and response
equipment to the teams. It is expected that the teams, which are currently
conducting internal training, will become operational by April 1, 2004. A
minimum of eight fire department staff members trained to the Operations level
would respond upon activation.
HUSAR Team
The Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto have signed a memorandum of
understanding and agreed that a Toronto HUSAR team would provide a response
capability to HUSAR incidents on a province-wide basis. The City of Toronto is
responsible for the training and development of the members of the HUSAR team.
Initial training of the program instructors through various qualified outside
providers has been completed. The city’s training facility has been expanded to
enable the delivery of subsequent training at the local level.
The selection of additional team members begins in January 2004 and training
will begin shortly after. The team is composed of members from fire, police, and
emergency medical services, and structural engineers from the City of Toronto.
Once the team has been fully trained, approximately 70 team members will be
available to respond upon activation. The number of responders and the
composition of the team will depend on the seriousness and circumstances of each
incident.
The team provided a limited response to two significant emergencies in Toronto
in 2003. As the training of the additional team members progresses, the team’s
response capability will increase.
Activating the CBRN Response and HUSAR Teams
Teams may be activated through the county, district or region fire coordinator,
subject to the following conditions being met.
To request the assistance of the teams, the fire coordinator contacts the
Provincial Operations Centre (POC) and provides information about the emergency,
including the exact location. Once it has been determined by the POC that the
incident in question is a “significant emergency” and that the conditions listed
above have been met, appropriate approval will be given to deploy the resources
of one or more of the teams to the scene.
Concurrently, the POC will contact the OFM to request that its support personnel
and equipment be deployed. The POC will also deploy the Emergency Management
Ontario Provincial Emergency Response Team (PERT) to provide advice and
assistance to community officials. If necessary and appropriate, the OPP
Provincial Emergency Response Team (PERT) will also be deployed.
Access to Resources for Lesser Emergencies
A fire department may have to respond to incidents that are not “significant
emergencies” but that nonetheless are beyond the fire department’s capabilities
and require additional resources. In these situations, the fire coordinator may
contact the POC. Arrangements will then be made to contact the OFM to request
technical and/or equipment support in order to potentially resolve the
situation. The OFM may in turn request specialized technical expertise from the
memorandums of understanding partners or other sources of assistance to help the
fire department.
Provincial Operations Centre
The Provincial Operations Centre may be reached on a 24-hour basis at (416) 314
0472 or toll free at 1-866-314-0472.
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