Now if there is a hazardous materials emergency, response time will be a fraction of what it was when no countywide team existed.
By DUANE BOURNE
Published January 14, 2004
[Times photo: Maurice Rivenbark]
Hernando County Commissioner Nancy Robinson joins other officials in hoping Bill Davis, a Spring Hill firefighter shown explaining some of the new equipment to commissioners Tuesday.
BROOKSVILLE - In July, when a suspicious 55-gallon drum was discovered in the woods adjacent to the National Guard Armory south of Brooksville, officials waited hours before a loosely knit team of hazardous materials workers from Hernando and Pasco counties determined that the milky substance was nothing more than cleaning solution.
Such long waits should be a thing of the past. Determining who will respond to hazardous situations and how now rests in the hands of a new county hazardous materials team.
On Tuesday, officials unveiled the team, which will be able to respond quickly to anything from a chemical attack to a fuel spill.
"There are a number of large trucks that carry chemicals on the interstate and on the rail system that could spill," county emergency management director Thomas Leto said. "We have to deal with these incidents."
As recently as last year, when authorities needed a hazardous materials team to respond to an incident in Hernando County, they summoned a small volunteer group from Citrus County, which took some time to arrive.
"It took almost two hours to come onsite," Leto said.
He said the new team, composed of roughly 60 firefighters, paramedics, county employees and law enforcement officers, is one of the largest in the Tampa Bay area.
"Hillsborough is the only county that compares," Leto said.
"When stuff like this happens, we don't need to call another county," added Spring Hill Fire Rescue Capt. Michael Rampino, who is the captain of one of the team's three units.
The move to a fully operational, county-managed team does not preclude officials from seeking the assistance of neighboring counties for a range of emergency situations. It also means the county's personnel, under a mutual aid agreement, could be called to counties such as Pasco, Citrus or Sumter to assist in hazardous materials emergencies there.
Leto, whose office handles the team's budget and administrative needs, said the plan was initially funded with $248,000 earmarked by county commissioners in January 2002 after the commission recognized that the county was inadequately prepared and ill-equipped to respond to hazardous materials emergencies in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Officials anticipated that the county's hazardous materials response team would be operational by January 2003, but that did not happen.
The team became fully functional earlier this month with three trailers, one of which is stocked with a library of 3,200 reference items to help team members accurately identify hazardous agents and how to respond to them.
Leto attributed much of the one-year delay to administrative items, such as the fire departments agreeing on a standard operational plan and requiring additional training and physical examinations for members. He lauded how well the departments worked together to make the response team a reality.
"This is the first time that all the departments have come together on something like this," Leto said. "This is two years in the making. We are ready now."
All of the departments and agencies involved in the team will sustain it financially. According to Leto, they will chip in a portion of the team's estimated $50,000-a-year budget.
While the cost to keep the team running is relatively inexpensive, officials said it will be money well spent.
"I hope that they spent all this money and never have to use it," Brooksville fire Chief James Daugherty said.
Participating departments and agencies include: Hernando County Fire Rescue, Spring Hill Fire Rescue, the Brooksville Fire Department, Hernando County Waste Management, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and the Hernando County Emergency Management Department.
The team's three units will be staffed by Hernando County Fire Rescue on the east side of the county, Brooksville Fire Department in the central part, and Spring Hill Fire Rescue on the west side.
The commander for the team will be Danny Roberts, the county's chief of fire and rescue operations.
- Duane Bourne can be reached at 352 754-6114. Send e-mail to dbourne@sptimes.com
