Chemical Sampling

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Permalink Reply by Shawn McKERRY on October 22, 2008 at 2:41pm

That is touchy Todd, I guess number one is are you able to do so and is it really in your mandate... I have a stern stance that a fire service should only get involved with hazardous materials when there is a life safety issue, we should not be getting involved with the product themselves. Our fire priority is Life Safety so that should be evacuate and protect. From there it should be up to company or responsible party to deal with the problem, that then would involve contracting in a hazardous material clean up company to come in and resolve the problem. There is a lot of headache if a fire service takes this role onto themselves, you would have to sample it, test or send it away to be tested, package and label the product and then find a suitable location to disposal and them transport.

However if you have all the resources and the training, and it is also something you have set out in your level of service I think taking samples is something that could be done, all the power to you, but I don't believe really this is something we really have to get our hands into....

I have attached two photos of Edmonton Fire taking a test sample from a Unknown product in a blue container, they then tested the product on their Portable Infrared Spectrophotometer... I am not with Edmonton City but was on scene at this incident, this product was believed to be hydrochloric acid from indication on tests strips, however it did turn out to be something else after testing...

Thanks

Shawn McKERRY

Attachments:

• DSC02293.JPG, 3 MB
• DSC02299.JPG, 3.1 MB