Hazardous Materials Team

A Hazardous Materials (Haz Mat) incident is generally described as intentional or accidental release of toxic, combustible, illegal or dangerous nuclear, biological, or chemical agents into the environment. Since its establishment, the Hazardous Materials Team has continually progressed and increased its capability to deal with special emergencies. The Hillside Fire Department has been involved in the handling of hazardous materials incidents from the time it was recognized that such hazards existed. In the 1980s the fire service began to recognize the need for special training and equipment in order to deal with incidents involving hazardous materials. Like other fire departments in the area, we became more involved in looking at our potential for problems and how we might better handle them.

In the years following, it became apparent that the idea of combining response team efforts with other area fire departments would make more sense. Ultimately combining with other communities would eliminate on cost as well as duplicating equipment. Later MABAS Division 20 “Hazardous Materials Team” was formed in the early 1990’s. All department members of the Hazardous Materials Team are trained in accordance with the State Fire Marshal’s Office at the Operations and Technician level. Members of the Team train every other month. The Haz Mat Team participates in exercises, scenarios, drills, and full-scale exercises. The Hazardous Materials Team is equipped with state-of-the-art chemical protective clothing, communication devices, chemical detection instruments, electronic sensing units, SCBA’s. The Hazardous materials Team provides emergency response to all hazardous materials incidents within the Village of Hillside and surrounding communities.