One of the state’s hazardous materials response teams is on track to climb back to full strength after a recent recruitment, in what state Hazmat Division Director Jeffrey Winn labeled a “boon for the commonwealth.”
BOSTON (SHNS) – One of the state’s hazardous materials response teams is on track to climb back to full strength after a recent recruitment, in what state Hazmat Division Director Jeffrey Winn labeled a “boon for the commonwealth.”
Five new recruits moved forward in the process to join the Joint Hazardous Incident Response Team (JHIRT), Winn said Monday at a meeting of the Hazardous Materials Mitigation Advisory Board.
The team is made up of local firefighters from around the state who are trained as hazmat technicians and are then selected for the JHIRT unit as “subject matter experts” who can be called to the scene to work with other responders including the bomb squad.
Along with the Technical Support Unit, another team under the Department of Fire Services’ Hazmat Division, JHIRT had seen a dip in technicians.
“Our numbers for both the JHIRT and TSU memberships have fallen off over the years, and are expected to fall off even more with projected retirements that are coming up over the next 18 months. So, hence the need to recruit for both,” Winn said, adding that a TSU recruiting drive would be planned next.
Both teams optimally consist of 15 members, according to a department spokesperson. JHIRT has 13 techs, with two retirements expected in the next year or so, and TSU is down to eight technicians. Their membership is recruited from within the approximately 245 local firefighters who have trained as state hazmat technicians. The board separately voted to approve 10 new hazmat techs Monday.
“The JHIRT can be requested for suspicious powder calls, to assess possible clandestine laboratory situations, and to initiate the multiagency Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Team,” according to the department.
State Fire Marshal Jon Davine said that he watched part of the tryouts along with Deputy Public Safety Secretary Susan Terrey.
“Fantastic process. I went out the first day on Monday, and actually the deputy secretary of EOPSS, Sue Terry, came out to observe also on Monday. Very impressed. It was a great process, fair process, safe process, and sounds like we’ve got five good members to move forward. I know I’ve done those tryouts in the past, it’s a heavy lift to get all that stuff done, it’s a long week, it’s long hours. You definitely get your steps in,” Davine told the board.
Out of 18 applicants, 12 were interviewed and eight moved on to the tryouts. Those who were ultimately not selected have committed to apply again in the future and have shown interest in the TSU recruitment, Winn said.
“And it shows us, on this side, people that are committed, if you will — that are stepping up, and available, and ready,” he said.
Also Monday, Winn gave an update on the locations of Fire Services hazmat trucks, with one back at its “home” in the Woburn Fire Department.
Down in Barnstable County, a memorandum of agreement has been signed to locate a truck on Joint Base Cape Cod, and that truck will move over from Wareham where another vehicle will be located.
“And that will ultimately give us a squad and an [Operational Response Unit] on the east side of the [Cape Cod] bridges, and then everything of course remains on the west side of the bridges. So we have a pretty robust capability for the commonwealth spread out throughout the district,” Winn said.