The purpose of this Association shall be to establish policy, procedure, and guidelines that would best provide emergency services to the citizens of Adams County and surrounding areas, and form a closer bond of fellowship between its members.

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- May 08, * Adams Haz-Mat * -

The Adams County Hazardous Incident Response Team (HIRT) was originally created in 1995 to assist county fire departments with response to, and containment of hydrocarbons spills usually over 100 gallons, and to assist certified hazardous materials response teams contracted with the county in decontamination. The Adams County HIRT is not a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania certified Hazardous Material Response Team. Adams County contracts with the Cumberland County Special Hazards Operations Team. Over the past ten years, the team has responded to a variety of hydrocarbon, hazardous materials and “white powder” incidents. The Cumberland County team would be used to perform work to handle and control actual or potential leaks of hazardous substances requiring a close approach, their technical expertise and/or their sophisticated detection equipment for identifying unknown substances. Currently, the Adams County HIRT has 9 Hazardous Materials Technicians and 2 at the Hazardous Materials Operations Level. Adams County has approximately 162 facilities which store more than 400 hazardous substances, or extremely hazardous substances.

In 2007, the Haz-mat Coordinator reorganized the team as a way to allow more responders to participate and pick the level they would be trained to. For example, team members who respond to oil spills and assist with decontamination would need to be trained to the Operations level, while those who would want to assist with “close approaches” and who want to be more “proactive” in their response would be trained to the Technicians level. The HIRT also performs monitoring and decontamination for transportation radiological incidents and also for evacuees from York County who are designated to come to Adams County to stay at mass care centers, in the event of an incident at Three Mile Island. For this reason, a number of individuals were designated a Radiological Response Team (RRT). They will receive training specific to radiological incidents.

Led by Hazmat Coordinator Laura Borth, the Adams County HIRT team operates two response vehicles, and two trailers. The response vehicles are a 1998 GMC Suburban, and a 2006 Ford F550. Trailer 41-1 housed at the ACDES, carries decontamination supplies such as kiddy pools, buckets, brushes, SCBA’s, etc. This trailer is pulled by 1983 GMC (formally Wagon 1) Trailer 41-2 housed at the Biglerville Fire Hose and Truck Company, and responds to hydrocarbon spills. The County also purchased a decontamination system within a tent for decontamination of mass casualties.

The Adams County HIRT is located at the Adams County Department of Emergency Services, 230 Greenamyer Lane in Gettysburg, PA.

If anyone is interested in volunteering for the team or would like more information, please contact Laura Borth at 717-334-8603 or e-mail at lborth@adamscounty.us for an application.

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Last revised: May 10, 2008 10:36 PM