Corio's HAZMAT Detection Unit

by Leith Hillard, CFA Public Affairs

"We're a small part of the Federal Government's counter-terrorism arsenal to protect Australia from potential threat," CFA Operations Officer Ian Beswicke says. It's a lesser-known view of CFA but an accurate description of the specialist role played by the Corio Hazmat Detection Unit.

"Our work definitely changed after September 11," Leading Firefighter Nick Callan says. "Calls spiked again after the Madrid and London bombings."

Leading up to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, the Federal Government significantly boosted funds to enhance CFA’s capability and the new HAZMAT detection vehicles were all on the road by March that year.

There are only three HAZMAT vehicles in the State – Dandenong's and the Scientific Officer’s are the other two – with Corio chosen for its location southwest of Melbourne. The unit's resources are regarded as state resources and can be accessed by MFB under the Mutual Aid agreement.

The equipment onboard has changed the nature of the job, making monitoring far more precise. "It's an advance on fire science, which is about how things react," Leading Firefighter Craig Kneeshaw explains. "Atmospheric monitoring used to be about explosiveness and flammability but now it's about that in conjunction with toxicity over time."

The equipment can detect chemical, biological and radiological agents including alpha, beta and gamma rays, as well as anthrax, nerve agents and mustard gases. It can pick up accelerants to parts per billion but, no less important, it can also tell firefighters when it's safe to go into a house after a fire.

"This equipment has shown us how damaging it is to stand inside a burnt house and breathe in the carbon monoxide," Nick says. "Once a fire is over, it's more toxic than it was before. We all look at chemicals and smoke so differently now."

CFA's Scientific Officer Craig Tonks works at CFA HQ and has a background as an industrial chemist. As well as making regular visits to the station, he does phone consultations to talk through incidents; the chemicals and quantities based on the readings the unit is getting and interpretation of the data.

The unit can provide information about the plume model of a structure fire or vapour cloud, which can determine where a toxic cloud is travelling: it takes the guesswork out of the situation. The detection van can transform into a mini control and weather centre on site, making recommendations to the Incident Controller who's trained to take in lots of specialist information before making decisions.

A job might start when a member of the public calls in a mysterious cloud or gas smell. One job began when a World War I nerve agent was dropped at a local police station. "We're usually working with imprecise information," Craig says. "Once we get there we do the readings and try to interpret them. We then weigh up the options and make a decision."

"We had a job in Lara with a substance leaking from a shipping container,” Nick says. “Some people were affected by fumes and there was an industrial chemist working at the company. He named the chemicals we were dealing with and we punched them into our diagnostic programs on the laptop. If the substance is unknown, the program might help us by eliminating what it's not and, in the case of Lara, we relayed information about the chemicals to the hospital where the people were being treated."

Twenty staff at Corio are qualified for enhanced detection with approximately 20 volunteers also operational.

"It's a challenge," Qualified Leading Firefighter Andrew Gibson says. "Maths, science, chemistry, physics, tactics and strategies. It's all those things rolled together to get a practical outcome."

"What we’re understanding about what we detect has changed our firefighting practice, making it safer," Ian says. "I also do fire investigation and if I come across any suspicious fires or odours, I now always use the gear to see if an accelerant can be detected."

Ian also took part in a multi-agency mass decontamination course at management level, while the unit as a whole does education with other Geelong brigades.

And yet fires still take up the biggest part of the workload. The unit does HAZMAT detection training and completes equipment checks at least one day of their roster, along with the normal weekly checks to maintain a state of readiness or eternal vigilance.

(An abridged version of this article was first published in the Autumn 2008 edition of Brigade magazine)