Vernon Fire's - Hazardous Materials Team

There are over one million known hazardous chemicals and 70,000 regulated and transported daily in the United States. Due to the industrial nature of our city the Vernon Fire Department began a fully staffed Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Team (HMERT) a decade ago.

The 34 Hazardous Materials Team Members are Vernon Firefighters that have undergone 320 hours of training to receive their "specialist" classification, as certified by the State of California. Yet this is only the beginning, for the HAZMAT specialist's education is on going. The Haz Mat. Team is tasked with an extensive training program including mock spills and monthly inter-agency scenarios.

With the threat of weapons of mass destruction and acts of terrorism, current Haz Mat personnel are trained in the mitigation and detection of WMD as well as chemical warfare agents.

The 1992 Spartan Super Vac Hazardous Materials Unit provides frontline response and is housed at station 2. The apparatus is custom built and complimented with the following:

· On-board laboratory
· A variety of monitoring and detection devices
· Portable weather station
· Command cab and lap-top computers
· WMD response module · Hazardous materials library
· Full compliment of Level "A" response suits and equipment
· Exterior compartments for rescue and decontamination tools

The HAZMAT team is on duty 24 hours a day 7 days a week. In compliance with a mutual aid agreement, the Vernon HAZMAT Team and the Santa Fe Springs HAZMAT Team also provide Level "A" response to the cities of Downey, Montebello, and Compton.