Video: HAZMAT drill at Street Pool in Morris Township. Video by Berit Ollestad
By Berit Ollestad
Last week’s bombings in Seaside Park and Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood drove home a point:
“Smalltown U.S.A is no longer safe anymore. It can happen anywhere,” Morris Township Fire Chief Jesse Kaar said on Saturday, at a training exercise that simulated a disaster at the Streeter Pool.
The exercise, which culminated four days of training, was funded by a $15,000 Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Grant from the federal Department of Transportation.
The scenario: A 150-pound canister of chlorine was leaking in a locker room. After safely evacuating individuals from the area, it was time to start decontaminating the victims and pool area.
Slideshow photos by Berit Ollestad
A handful of volunteers from the community then were subjected to showers from the fire department’s mammoth sprayer from a ladder truck.
This process was expected to remove up to 80 percent of contaminants from a victim’s body and clothing.
Next, they continued to various stations to strip their clothing, shower, shower some more, and then finally to put on clean dry clothing provided by the department.
“The coolest part was taking a warm shower after being freezing. The only thing that scared me a little were the creepy yellow guys,” said Dominic Correale, a young participant and son of Township Firefighter Jim Correale.
Dominic said “being a firefighter is my back-up plan because I want to follow in my dad’s foot-steps, if I don’t become a professional baseball player.”
This marked the first joint drill by all four Morris County-based agencies with decontamination expertise: The Morris Township Fire Department, the Morris County Regional Fire Department Decontamination Unit, the Flanders HAZMAT team and the HAZMAT team from Picatinny Arsenal.
Approximately 75 individuals from the various agencies participated.
“There were some hiccups, but we know what areas we need to focus on. Since this was the first time that we have all trained together, overall I was pleased with the results,” said Chief Kaar. “I was particularly impressed with the efficiency of our timing. We were ready to start treating patients within 15 minutes of arriving at the scene.”
Participants were given no advance details about the event’s location or scenario.
“If we were to have given them the details prior to today, they would have already been five steps in their thinking already and it was important to make this as realistic as possible. If this had of been an actual scenario, you don’t have the luxury of knowing beforehand how it’s going to play out,” said Deputy Chief Mike Nunn.
Some of the volunteers were Boy Scouts, whose motto is “Be Prepared.”
“You never know when a situation might come up,” said Steve Gardberg, leader of Boy Scout Pack 125.
The fire department extended an invitation to Captain Ken Caruthers of the Nashville Fire Department and the Miken Safety Group.
Caruthers is one of two captains for Nashville’s HAZMAT team.
“The people of the Township and Morris County should be grateful and appreciate the fact that they have these resources and the level of expertise right here in their own backyard,” said Caruthers.
