On Monday last week Tainan City Government Fire Bureau’s Fifth Disaster Rescue Corps held a toxic chemical incident rescue test designed to familiarize rank-and-file firefighters with procedures for handling various kinds of toxic chemical incident, along with the operation of the equipment, to boost their disaster rescue effectiveness and safeguard the public’s lives and property.
The Fifth Corps said that it has the largest number of registered factories within its jurisdiction, and the manufacturing processes of technological and industrial products often involve the use of toxic chemicals that may be hazardous, such as being flammable or explosive. For this reason, the corps holds toxic chemical incident rescue test at all its stations in order to enhance the firefighters’ toxic chemical incident rescue capabilities, thus safeguarding the firefighters themselves as well as other people’s lives and property.
The Fifth Corps said the test included hazard identification and the practical use of chemical protective equipment and detectors, so that when the firefighters are faced with toxic chemical incidents, they can quickly identify any hazardous substances and ascertain concentration levels, according to which they can decide how large a hazard warning area to set up before performing the necessary rescue tasks.
Photo courtesy of Tainan Fire Bureau’s Fifth Disaster Rescue Corps 照片:台南市消防局第五大隊提供
The Fire Bureau stressed the fact that toxic chemical incidents are different from ordinary fires in that they involve a high degree of danger and uncertainty. When faced with uncertain conditions and unknown chemicals, toxic chemical incident rescue should minimize losses by adhering to the principle that “doing things right is more important than doing them fast.”
(Translated by Julian Clegg, Taipei Times)
台南市消防局第五救災救護大隊上週一辦理毒性化學物品災害搶救測驗,讓基層消防員熟悉各項毒性化學物品災害處理流程,以及相關器材操作,提升救災效能,確保市民的生命財產安全。
第五大隊指出,轄內因列管工廠家數最多,且各項科技及工業產品製程中,常伴隨毒性化學物品的使用,往往具有易燃或易爆等危害特性,因此,針對各分隊舉辦毒性化學物品災害搶救測驗,提升消防人員毒性化學物品災害搶救能力,並確保基層及市民的生命財產安全。
第五大隊表示,此次測驗內容包含危害辨識、化學防護裝備裝著及偵檢器的實作等,讓消防員在面臨毒性化學品災害時,能快速辨識危害物質,同時偵檢出濃度高低,以便決定劃設警戒區範圍,執行相關災害搶救任務。
消防局強調,毒性化學物品災害有別於一般火災,具有高度危險性與不確定性,因此,面對不明狀況與未知何種化學品時,毒性化學物品災害搶救應秉持「做的對比做得快重要」的原則,才能將災害損失降至最低。
(自由時報記者萬于甄)
DID YOU KNOW?
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