Snohomish County Fire District 5 Hazardous Materials risk is moderate. We have a few commercial occupancies that have known materials that are deemed high or extremely hazardous. Our firefighters are trained to HazMat Operations level. At this level of training, our firefighters will identify the hazard and perform minor mitigation procedures.
The district belongs to a county-wide Emergency HazMat Response Unit, comprised from six(6) fire jurisdictions across the county. This unit can be called upon if the HazMat incident grows beyond what the district can handle.
- Who are our member agencies?
- Arlington Fire Department
- Everett Fire Department
- Marysville Fire District
- Snohomish County Fire District 1
- Snohomish County Fire District 7
Why a multi-agency approach?
Special operations, such as a response to a hazardous materials emergency requires specialized resources which are often too much for any one agency to handle alone. By combining these re-sources into a single service delivery team, duplication can be reduced while resources are pooled to provide the most seamless and efficient response possible.
Responders
About 120 experienced fire officers and fire-fighters serve on the team. These responders, from the six member-agencies, are initially trained as HazMat Technicians and maintain certification in accordance with national consensus standards, and state and local regulations.
How the team operates:
Deployment
The Snohomish County Hazardous Materials Response Team operates under a tiered response system.
When someone calls 911, we are ready to assist 24 hours a day - every day. Some HazMat releases may pose an emergency threat and may be beyond the scope of the local fire department. In such cases, technical assistance is provided by the HazMat team through one of the four response units.
For larger-scale emergencies, all four response units are dispatched and converge on the scene to make technical recommendations to the incident commander. The team is ready to assist with tasks like product identification, risk assessment, plugging/patching and decontamination. For long-term incidents, off-duty personnel may be called back to work during planned operational periods.
Response Assets
Response assets of the Snohomish County Haz- Mat Response Team have been greatly improved over the past several years. Currently, the team operates four technical response units located strategically in Snohomish County. The response units are:
- HAZMAT - 1
— A technical response unit based in Everett - DCON - 12
— A decontamination unit based in Fire District 1 - HAZMAT - 61
— A technical response unit based in Marysville - HAZMAT - 71
— A technical response unit based in Fire District 7
The team has assembled a vast array of technical equipment that provides the ability to detect and/or identify chemical, biological, radio-logical, and explosive materials. Various levels of chemical protective clothing and equipment needed to enter dangerous atmospheres are contained on each of the response units.
Technicians are capable of performing hazard risk assessments to include estimating release rates and downwind threats to populations using current weather data and plume dispersion modeling technologies.
Governance
The Snohomish County Special Operations Policy Board sets the legal, financial and policy aspects of the HazMat team. The board is comprised of a senior chief officer from each member-agency. Reporting to the board is the HazMat Operations Committee. This committee is responsible for overseeing the operational readiness of the team. Two subcommittees, Training and Equipment, help assure technicians are trained and equipment is maintained in a state-of-readiness respectively.
Support
The team is fortunate to have support from two emergency services partners: Fire District 1 of Snohomish County Finance and the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management (DEM).
These agencies provide continual support by assisting with the development of guiding documents, securing grants for training and equipment, and providing administrative assistance.
