Hazmat Response and Training

I have always admired hazmat technicians. They just mention the term CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosive) and they have my attention. But then they put colorless, odorless, tasteless, and fatal in the same sentence, and that scares me. I have the utmost respect for these technicians who take on this responsibility.

The knowledge and extensive training that they require takes a certain kind of person to want to do this job. I cannot imagine the size of the chemistry set they played with growing up.

Thermal imagers (TI) can be extremely useful in hazmat incidents. Let’s look at a few of these situations in which the TI could be helpful and how you can practice with it.

Hazmat Identification

Practicing hazmat responses can be difficult. However, you can perform basic simulations in your firehouse with common foodstuffs.

1. Fill your kitchen sink with warm water. Then pour a small amount of cooking oil into the water and watch it with the TI. You should be able to see two distinctly colored areas in the water showing the relative surface temperature and determine the presence of the cooking oil material. For easier training, make the temperature difference significant to decrease the difficulty of identifying the material. For more challenging training, try to make the water and cooking oil temperatures closer to increase the difficulty of identifying the material. After you have completed this simulation, you will understand how lighter-than-water materials appear on the water’s surface.
2. Refill the sink and pour milk or juice into it. This gives your firefighters the opportunity to see how miscible or heavier materials rapidly disappear from the view of the TI. Reinforce the effects of water by having a firefighter immerse a hand into the sink while the rest view it on the TI.

Any chemical that has a specific gravity of less than (<) 1 will float. If it is a polar solvent, it will mix and be nearly invisible. If the chemical has a specific gravity greater than (>) 1, it will sink and the TI will offer no assistance, as experienced by the hand placed under the water described in the simulations above.

HazMat and Emissivity

Mention the word emissivity, and everyone scratches their heads in confusion. Briefly, emissivity is the notion that all materials will absorb heat and release heat at different rates. Emissivity affects how materials appear on your TI. To see the effects of emissivity on a TI, follow these steps:

1. Partially fill several containers with water. Have a mix of containers so they are made of varied materials such as plastic, glass, and metal. Ask the firefighters to determine the product levels in the containers by scanning them with the TI. This simulation shows how certain materials may hide heat differences better than other materials.
2. Place cold, warm, and hot water in different containers to demonstrate which materials will show product levels the best. Add an empty container and a completely filled one into the mix. The challenge is to determine product levels. If none are visible, we take the path of least resistance and say they are empty, but they are not. To determine any sort of product level, there must be an air space in the container. To err on the side of caution, it is best to declare the containers to be full until proven otherwise.
3. If you have a Thermos, fill it with hot water and try to determine the liquid level in it. Of course, it will be invisible to the TI, but you can use this to reinforce the fact that insulated containers will not show a product level. What kinds of chemicals are transported in thermally insulated containers? Does this change the hazmat response guidebook for minimum evacuation distances?

HazMat Tracking

A TI can help you identify a leaking container or the source of a leak under certain conditions. To simulate this, do the following:

• Fill several containers with water and place them in a row.
• Make pinhole leaks in a container to add realism.
• Perform the drill in low-light conditions to force your firefighters to rely on the TI more than with their eyes, aiding their image interpretation skills.

1 Distinct presence of a <1 material floating on the water—cooking oil in a sink. (Photos courtesy of Bullard.)

2 A stainless-steel pot with boiling water registering a temperature of 83°F.

While your TI will not see leaking gases, it will identify that the container is cooler because it is leaking. If it is easy for you to refill some self-contained breathing apparatus cylinders, place several next to each other. Carefully release about a quarter of the air from one of the cylinders and ask your firefighters which one was leaking.

Temperature Measurement

While temperature measurement can be somewhat accurate when viewing common construction materials, it can be extremely inaccurate when viewing reflective materials such as glass and metals. To simulate why firefighters should not make critical decisions based on an indicated temperature, fill a shiny stainless-steel pot with water, place it on the stove, and bring it to a boil. Ask the following questions:

• At what temperature does water boil? (212°F or 100°C)
• If the pot contains boiling water, what should the minimum temperature of the pot be? (212°F or 100°C)
• Look at the pot with the TI. What is the temperature reading at the middle of the pot? (83°F or 30.6°C)

This simulation is an effortless way to demonstrate how temperature measurement in a TI can lead firefighters to make poor decisions. Everyone who uses a TI must understand that they must not use a temperature reading to make life-or-death decisions.

Image interpretation requires regular practice. Using the TI in and around the firehouse is an effective way to improve your skills and keep them honed for emergency incidents. Practice also reinforces to your firefighters that a TI is a valuable tool with many uses, including hazmat responses. Simulations like those mentioned here, or your own creative adaptations, are simple and can give your firefighters additional practice in understanding thermal imaging.

Manfred Kihn is a 19-year veteran of the fire service, having served as an ambulance officer, emergency services specialist, firefighter, captain, and fire chief. He has been a member of Bullard’s Emergency Responder team since 2005 and is the company’s fire training specialist for thermal imaging technology. He is certified through the Law Enforcement Thermographers’ Association (LETA) as a thermal imaging instructor and is a recipient of the Ontario Medal for Firefighters Bravery. If you have questions about thermal imaging, you can e-mail him at [email protected].