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Hazardous materials response teams operating within the Commonwealth of Virginia, potentially linked to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) or local fire/emergency services.
Emergency responders who have received specific training to handle incidents involving hazardous materials (HAZMAT).
Each hazardous materials officer is trained and equipped to assist with the identification of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear materials.
Technical assistance or on-scene response is available on a 24/7 basis from one or more of the HMOs.
These officers will work with other state resources, industry representatives, and technical consultants to provide vital information to emergency responders on scene.
The Hazardous Materials Program maintains specialized detection and monitoring equipment, specialized protective clothing, and product-control devices. Hazardous Materials First Responder – Operations.
This course is designed for individuals who must respond to a release of hazardous materials and perform defensive operations.
The program includes information taught in the HMFR Awareness course.
The course teaches first responders incident stabilization techniques such as incident profiling, hazardous materials behavior modeling, incident planning and the Incident Command System.
In addition to incident stabilization techniques, first responders learn defensive tactical control skills including damming, diking, diversion and retention of products, and decontamination of personnel.
