Toronto Fire Hazardous Materials Incidents PDF

STANDARD OPERATING GUIDELINE HAZARDOUS MATERIALS INCIDENTS – ALARM LEVELS AND EVENT TYPES Date Issued: November 24, 2022 Rescinds: April 2, 2022 Section: Incident and Emergency Operations File Code: G-HAZA PURPOSE To provide all Toronto Fire Services personnel with a guideline defining hazardous ma...

STANDARD OPERATING GUIDELINE HAZARDOUS MATERIALS INCIDENTS – ALARM LEVELS AND EVENT TYPES Date Issued: November 24, 2022 Rescinds: April 2, 2022 Section: Incident and Emergency Operations File Code: G-HAZA PURPOSE To provide all Toronto Fire Services personnel with a guideline defining hazardous material incident alarm levels, event types and corresponding responses. RESPONSIBILITY All Chief Officers are responsible for maintaining an understanding of hazardous material (HazMat) incident alarm levels. Incident Commanders are responsible for initiating hazardous material incident alarm levels relevant to the incident requirements. Communications Centre personnel are responsible for dispatching appropriate apparatus to hazardous material incident alarm levels utilizing the correct corresponding event types. GUIDELINES Response Levels 1. Hazardous Material Incident Level 1 Circumstances requiring a Hazardous Materials Level 1 response of emergency apparatus include the following: (a) Propane or Natural Gas – small fire or leak with no one hurt (e.g. car, propane barbeque*, etc.), (Excluding Natural Gas barbeque; see HAZ Level 2 Incidents). (b) Gasoline or oil – small spill involving 1 to 50 litres that is not in the sewers. (c) Odours or fumes – minor aroma in residential property with no one hurt (Does not include Natural Gas odours, see HAZ Level 2 Incidents). (d) Assist Police: i. Special requests by Police (e.g. pepper spray) ii. Joint Operations trained staff aboard designated apparatus may be dispatched depending on the nature of the incident. (e) Abandoned container; one only, not leaking, no one hurt. (f) Odours or fumes; i. Non-residential occupancy; no one hurt. File Code: G-HAZA Page 1 of 5  STANDARD OPERATING GUIDELINE ii. Outside; sounding less serious (does not include Natural Gas odours; see HAZ Level 2 Incidents). For incidents requiring a Hazardous Materials Level 1 response, the TFS Communications Centre shall dispatch one (1) Pumper class apparatus. Chemical/Biological/Radiological/Nuclear/Explosive (CBRNE) Level 1 is dispatched as a CBRN1 event type which includes: a Hazardous Materials Level 1 response, a Hazardous Materials Unit (Heavy Haz) and a District Chief. 2. Hazardous Material Incident Level 2 Circumstances requiring a Hazardous Materials Level 2 response of emergency apparatus include the following: (a) Propane; small fire or leak with injuries. (b) Odours or fumes (does not include Natural Gas odours); residential, with casualty. (c) Gasoline or oil spill; i. Inside spill. ii. Minor spill in which 1 to 50 litres has entered sewers. iii. Medium spill of 50 to 200 litres and no one hurt by spill. (d) Chemicals; minor leak or spill, no one hurt. (e) Laboratory; minor incident, no one hurt, investigate problem. (f) Radioactive; minor incident, no fire, no one hurt. For incidents requiring a Hazardous Materials Level 2 response, the TFS Communications Centre shall dispatch the following: (a) One (1) Pumper (b) One (1) Hazardous Material Pumper (c) One (1) Hazardous Material Unit (Heavy Haz) (d) District Chief (e) Notify; i. Police (after dispatch) ii. Platoon Chief (after size-up) iii. Toronto EMS (after size-up) iv. ON DUTY Technical Support Officer Natural Gas Event Types (NGASLK) (NGASFI) (a) Natural Gas Leak (NGASLK); i. Without fire Gas main leaks – all sizes Gas barbeque (these have a possible infinite supply of gas) File Code: G-HAZA Page 2 of 5  STANDARD OPERATING GUIDELINE (b) All reports of Natural Gas odours (whether inside or outside) with the sole exception of Natural Gas powered vehicles (NGASLK) will respond the same vehicles as a Haz Materials Level 2 response. Natural Gas Leak with fire (NGASFI); dispatched as a First Alarm plus a Hazardous Materials Unit (Heavy Haz). CBRNE Level 2; (a) Will be dispatched as event type CBRN2 and will include a Haz Material Level 2 response plus One (1) Decon Aerial. (b) On Call Division Commander to be notified. 3. Hazardous Material Incident Level 3 Circumstances requiring a Hazardous Materials Level 3 response of emergency apparatus include any serious hazardous materials incident. A CBRNE Level 3 shall be dispatched as a CBRN3 event type with the same apparatus as a Hazardous Materials Level 3 response. For incidents requiring a Hazardous Materials Level 3 response, the TFS Communications Centre shall dispatch the following; (a) One (1) Pumper (b) One (1) Hazardous Material Pumper (c) Hazardous Material Support Unit + Driver (d) Two (2) Decon Aerials (e) One (1) Squad (f) Two (2) District Chiefs (g) One (1) Hazardous Materials Unit (Heavy Haz) (h) One (1) Air Light Unit (i) Decon 234 and Decontamination Support Unit(s) (j) Command Vehicle (k) Platoon Chief After the circumstances of the incident are confirmed, TFS Communications Centre personnel shall notify the following: (a) Division Commander (refer to G-SENI – Senior Officers On-Call) (b) ON DUTY Technical Support Officer (c) TFS Chief Medical Officer (d) Division Commander of Technical Operations (e) Information Section On-Call Officer (f) Police (g) Toronto EMS File Code: G-HAZA Page 3 of 5  STANDARD OPERATING GUIDELINE At any incident expected to be of long duration, the Incident Commander should consider requesting a Rehab Unit through the TFS Communications Centre. Any emergency response agency may request Toronto Public Health be notified. 4. Change to Alarm Levels Additional apparatus should be requested by the Incident Commander at his/her discretion. Recommendations regarding permanent changes to the Alarm Levels Response Guideline should be forwarded to the Division Commander of Technical Operations. 5. Command Vehicles A Command Vehicle should be requested by a Chief Officer for Hazardous Materials Incidents of long duration when personnel are exposed to long periods of incident activity. The number of apparatus at an incident should not impact a justifiable request for a Command Vehicle. When Command Vehicles become overburdened by persons associated with operations at an emergency incident, the Chief Officer should request a second Command Vehicle. If a second Command Vehicle is dispatched to an incident, responsibilities between the vehicles shall be divided in accordance with the following: (a) Primary Command Vehicle – Operations directly tied to Incident Management and Command. (b) Secondary Command Vehicle – Peripheral functions related to the Incident e.g. Media; co-ordination with agencies in a non-operational capacity. ATTACHMENT(S) N/A RELATED SOGS G-AIRB - Air Monitoring G-CMDV - Command Vehicles G-DECO - Decontamination Unit G-HAZB - Hazardous Material Incidents – Awareness Level File Code: G-HAZA Page 4 of 5  STANDARD OPERATING GUIDELINE G-HAZC - Hazardous Materials Incidents Operations G-HAZD - Hazardous Materials Incidents – Decontamination Operations G-HAZP - Hazardous Materials Incidents – Provincial CBRNE Deployment G-OAEN - Other Agencies (Non-Emerg) - Ministry of Environment (MOE) G-OAWT - Other Agencies (Non-Emerg) – Toronto Water G-SENI - Senior Officers On-Call File Code: G-HAZA Page 5 of 5