Plans to expand Metro team to cover southeastern N.B. delayed by training issues, scheduling conflicts

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By Eric Lewis
Times & Transcript Staff

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Metro Moncton is well-protected in the event of any accident or spill in which hazardous materials (HAZMAT) are involved.

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PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Moncton Fire Department deputy chief of operations Don McCabe (left) is seen scrubbing down an RCMP officer during the decontamination process after a methamphetamine lab exercise.

The Moncton Fire Department has a HAZMAT team to deal with chemicals, gases and other material that could pose a risk to humans, animals or the environment within the tri-community.

However, a year after the department planned to have a provincial HAZMAT team up and running to cover the southeastern part of the province, that team is still early in its development stages.

Moncton fire chief Eric Arsenault says several factors played into the delay.

The province and the City of Moncton struck a deal in early 2007 that was to see the province provide equipment and funding for training for a HAZMAT unit to cover the southeastern part of the province.

The goal at the time was to split New Brunswick into five regions and have a team in each region responsible for that area. Currently, there are only two provincial HAZMAT units, one in Fredericton and one in Saint John, and they now cover the entire province in the event of an incident.

Moncton, Bathurst and Edmundston are going to one day look after the remaining three sections of the province, but they will work, at least temporarily, on a smaller scale.

Moncton's HAZMAT team was expected to be up and running a year ago, but several factors have delayed it.

First of all, the fire chief says, it has been a challenge trying to schedule the intense training required for the department's 104 firefighters. Each firefighter works a schedule of 24 hours on, followed by three days off, so scheduling the up to 80 hours it takes to become a certified HAZMAT technician is a bit of a nightmare.

"How can I deliver that course within (the current) schedule?" Arsenault asks, explaining that he wants to make sure training is thorough and not rushed.

Adding to that, in the last year, Moncton firefighters needed to be recertified for their medical and first response certifications, so that took priority over new HAZMAT training.

The fire department was also in the middle of rebuilding its training unit, which caused delays.

In the midst of all this, the Moncton, Bathurst and Edmundston fire departments changed their plans for HAZMAT units a bit.

The province's goal was to see each of the five units in the five regions all be certified 'heavy' HAZMAT teams, which consist of 12 responders and 48-60 firefighters trained to be a part of the unit.

But Norm Thibodeau, deputy fire chief for the province, says that was a lofty goal some departments simply couldn't meet.

"It became almost impossible once we started looking at the amount of manpower it took to do the five heavy teams," he says.

Some regions decided they weren't even able to create a light HAZMAT team, which would have consisted of four responders and 16-20 firefighters trained.

Moncton planned to have a light unit ready by Sept. 2007 and a heavy unit ready by April of last year.

But now the city, along with Bathurst and Edmundston, is aiming for a new designation of 'scout' unit. This consists of two responders and a smaller core of firefighters prepared to work in the unit.

If an incident arises, such as a truck carrying chemicals going off road outside the city, the scout team would respond to assess the situation and work with the local fire department to evacuate an area if necessary.

Thibodeau says they will "scout" the area for the province to determine how they should approach the incident.

"(Depending) on what they discover, we would make a decision to either let them continue and resolve the problem or to call in the heavy team to respond with a full 12-member team," he says.

Asked if this is adequate coverage considering the province had a much bigger plan in mind, Thibodeau says the hope is that there will still be more, bigger HAZMAT units in time.

But he says the province does have complete coverage with its two units in Fredericton and Saint John, aided by local fire departments.

"Local firefighters are trained to at least look at the scenario, give us information, determine the hot zones and surround the hot zones with firefighter personnel and police and keep people out of the hot zone and do evacuation as required," he says.

The fire departments do a lot of the preparatory work needed so when the provincial HAZMAT units from out of town arrive, they can get to work on incident itself.

"We're still looking on the horizon that we'll have more teams bigger and better in time," Thibodeau says.

Fire Chief Arsenault says Moncton still has a long-term goal of running a heavy HAZMAT unit out of this area to cover the southeastern part of the province.

"It's not something we take lightly and it's going to take a lot of work on the part of our firefighters," he says.

All of the department's current firefighters have the first level of HAZMAT training -- awareness.

Some of them have the second level of training (operational) or third (technician), as well, but by early next year, Arsenault intends to make sure all firefighters have reached at least the second level of training.

The next step will be getting a "core group" of technicians fully trained. In the meantime, he says, the tri-community is still covered.

Luckily, the Moncton HAZMAT unit isn't needed too often. The last large-scale incident took place in 2003 when there was a fire at the Westmorland-Albert Solid Waste Commission.

Last year, the crew responded to a propane tanker driving off the road near Lutes Mountain. Luckily, the tanker slid down a snow-covered hill and didn't break open or leak.

Thibodeau says the Bathurst HAZMAT scout unit is in the middle of training and plans to be in operation within a matter of weeks. Edmundston will follow shortly after.