Hazmat exercise on Monday

There are five provincial Hazmat teams in Ontario including one based in North Bay.

Monday morning at Ecole Publique Odyssee the team took part in a mock scenario.

North Bay Fire Chief Jason Whiteley says the scenario revolved around a chlorine leak at the waste water treatment plant and a person is down and needs to be rescued.

He says this kind of scenario is quite realistic as they had a similar circumstance just a year ago.

“Fortunately, there were no victims involved in that one so our crews had to go in and isolate where the leak was. This is extremely realistic and is an example of how we would have to handle a Hazmat call,” Whiteley says.

He says they’re up to speed on the skills needed to deal with situation like this.

“We’ve always had the capability. Our biggest challenge is getting trained on the new equipment because it meets the new level of service,” he says.

He says two of the five teams are from the north with the other one based in Thunder Bay.

Whiteley says they had firefighters from Thunder Bay and Peterborough at the scenario.

(photos by station staff)