Hazmat training for Merrill firefighters

MERRILL -- MYFOXWAUSAU - It's a two day Hazmat training that teaches all first responders how to handle incidents involving dangerous chemicals. Hazardous material spills don't happen everyday.

But, when they do, it's crucial that first responders are prepared and that's why this training is so important.

Jason Goeldner travels across the state training firefighters. He's a fire, safety & OSHA trainer from Nicolet College in Rhinelander. He teaches firefighters how to respond to hazardous material spills.

In this set-up he's teaching these Merrill firefighters how to set up a decontamination zone.

Jason Goeldner says, "We have entry level personnel from Hazmat teams that are out mitigating a call. These members here are going to shower and clean those responders so they're not taking chemicals home with them."

February 2005, this semi truck tipped over onto Highway 51 spilling more than 300 bottles of compressed gases. It's accidents like this one that they practice for.

Merrill Fire Chief Bob Odegard says, "A lot of people don't think about it, but there are a lot of hazardous materials that come through our area. You think about the highway 51/39 corridor, 64 corridor coming through. The trains coming through. A lot of them are carrying hazardous materials we're not even aware of."

It's training that could mean the difference between life and death. They learn how to determine what type of chemicals are on the scene, a safe response and most importantly how to make sure everyone is protected.

Chief Odegard says, "Situations change. Everyone is different. The same one doesn't come up and often it's a year or two between incidents, so we have to be familiar with our equipment so we know how to use it."

Ideally they would like to do this training annually, but because of timing and other limitations they do it about every two or three years.

When you watch the video, you'll notice some of the men are wearing regular work clothes. That's because they have to train while they're on duty because of overtime issues. Their first priority is responding to emergency calls. In a real situation those men would be in full gear, but for the training they were in uniform in case of an emergency call.