If you saw all of the Danville Fire equipment located at the VA Illiana Health Care System Tuesday afternoon, there is no need to worry. Firefighters were there training for how to respond to a hazardous materials incident.
Fire Marshal Chris McMahon described the scene….
[‘’We’re simulating that a chemical was released in the VA center. There are several patients who need decon (decontaminated), so they’re bringing them through the parking lot to us. So we set up our DE-CON trailer – brought the trailer out, set up everything, and we sent one of our firefighters through practicing. (We’re) basically getting the skills down to make sure we’re ready to go if De-Con is needed,’’ said McMahon.]
Lieutenant McMahon says Danville Firefighters have the ability to respond to various kinds of hazardous material calls….
[‘’We can take care of anything from a small spill to a large incident that we actually have to go in, and patch tanks up or anything like that to stop a leak. We also can handle radiation emergencies, so we’re very highly ready to go. And we’re part of MABAS (the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System), so at anytime MABAS can say we’re deployed to any part of the United States.’’]
(This trailer is always loaded and ready to respond to hazmat incidents.)
Plans call for Danville Firefighters to continuing the training at the VA through Thursday afternoon.
