Interesting. We are setup for medium rescue duties, mainly for extrication. I would like to see us go more towards a heavy setup because we have running within about 50 yards of the fire hall a main line railroad that runs freight trains with an average of 150 cars per train and Amtrak passenger trains. We are not truly set up for incidents involving those.

 

We have to deal with multiple rail lines including the northeast corridor, as well as I 83, I 95, I 70, and Route 40 all of which are heavily traveled by tractor trailers. So we have a pretty big need. We alo have had the amtrak accident from the 80s in Chase MD. That was a big mess. Couldnt keep blades fresh. Another reason we like having the CARDOX unit is because we have one of the backup airports for BWI located in the County.

 

I need a Burger be back in a while

 

Enjoy Wendy's Sean. lol

 

The CARDOX unit is really nice. It doesnt get used a whole lot though unless there is a nasty fire at the Steel mill.

 

Neil the county also has a DECON, ATR, HAZMAT, and dedicated Foam units. I also forgot that all of the dive teams are usually run from the volley stations as well as all of the marine units.

 

I also forgot the cave-in unit.

 

I also forgot the USAR unit.

 

Our county is just really getting into the HAZMAT/Decon stuff. After 9/11, the state issued to every county (59 of them) a HAZMAT trailer and a Decon trailer. Both of which were fully equipped. They also supplied the truck to tow the trailers around when needed. Our sherriff's dept. just got a new command trailer that we can use for multi jurisdiction incidents. It is setup with a wireless computer network, dispatch post, meeting room with dry erase walls and ceiling so that you can write right on the walls, not need for a black board... lol.

 

Are you getting a little forgetfull ???

 

The county has been setup for hazmat stuff for a long time because of the port of Baltimore, and the 95 corridor. But the decon unit is a new addition. The county also has two hazmat support units that will respond if they dont need to bring the big boys out. The county has a pretty nice mobile command post. If they have to bring that out it is bad. Shoot anything past the first alarm will bring the white wave out. yeah most of those units were just recently added within the last year or two.

 

Neil, a few of the volley stations also have tankers and tanker support units, the county also owns, maintains the units and related equipment but doesnt man the three air units.

 

Okay, gotta ask. What is a tanker support unit ????

I am not familar with that term.

 

The Beef is from my Cow Doug and way better then Wendy's

 

A tanker support unit is essentially a mini pumper that has a very high pumping capacity ( in the ball park of 1000 gpm or greater) that is set up next to the local water supply ( ie lake, river, etc.)and is used for drafting and filling up the tankers. The air unit is probably self explanatory. The air units respond to all working fires to refill scba on scene.