Hazardous Materials Specialist

Don Wilson

My chemistry skills helped me to get a job as a lab technician after I graduated from high school. I have always enjoyed being active, so I joined the volunteer fire department in my community. The decision to leave the laboratory and take fire-fighting training was not a hard one for me to make. It was the beginning of a full-time fire-fighter career. Over the last twenty years, the fire department has evolved from dealing directly with emergency situations involving dangerous goods to a growing awareness of how people’s activities affect the department.

I was part of the first full-time hazardous materials response team in our region. We are responsible for stopping the leak or spill, neutralizing the product and ensuring the right people are involved to close the loop on the hazardous material cleanup. My role as a Shift Instructor got me a full-time training position in the Fire Department Academy. The most practical knowledge of how to do my present position as a Hazardous Materials Coordinator came from working as a Hazardous Materials Officer in charge of several large scale incidents, including an oil refinery fire and gasoline and propane tanker rollovers.

There is a never-ending learning curve in this type of work. My department was the first in Canada to take live agent training in weapons of mass destruction and is always looking at environmental issues and training opportunities to be prepared for unexpected events. The city fire department where I work is one of the very few in the world that are ISO 14001 registered. It is a demanding task to gain and keep this registration but it is also a significant accomplishment that others in my profession aspire to. The future of Hazardous Materials Specialists is changing. There will be more of a community focus with a greater emphasis on the investigation of polluters.

Fire departments will take a compliance approach, looking to stop pollution and fix problems before they become environmental issues. Hazardous Materials Specialists will have opportunities to take lead roles in remediation of sites, consulting to business and advising other government or city departments about environmental impacts. My first fire chief told me "The day you come to work and not like it is the time to leave.” Fortunately, I enjoy everything about my job. If you share the same enthusiasm for interaction with people, excitement on the job and seeing immediate positive results as I do, this may be the career for you.

Take some related post-secondary education and be in good physical condition. You can enter the fire department as a firefighter and with training and experience move yourself up to other positions. My position as a Hazardous Materials Coordinator is a day job with a week once per month on call. Normal daily routines include meetings, managing projects, developing priorities and responding to emergencies. The skill sets required for this work range from the analysis of infrared instrument data, to patching holes in railcars, to dealing with explosive weapons. In an emergency situation I coordinate regulatory agencies and manage the hazardous materials incident.

These situations involve interaction with personnel from Alberta Environment, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment Canada, Bylaw Officers, Police Tactical Units, RCMP and the City Environmental Management Unit. It is an advantage to be able to see my position from many angles as I can assess the impacts of hazardous materials on the environment, coordinate an effective cleanup and learn how to prevent future environmental hazards. All across the country cities are facing a problem of discarded needles in parks and playgrounds.

My department has established a needle recovery program that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, USA has referred to as the best they have seen. The CDC intends to use our program as a template for other communities. I have also made a contribution to the management of chemical fires. After experiencing a large oil refinery fire my department realized we had no practical means of determining whether the air downwind of a chemical fire contained enough hazardous material to justify evacuating the neighborhood. To solve this problem I coordinated the development of a portable air-monitoring unit. This positively pressurized, vehicle-based lab can position itself downwind of a fire, sample the plume and provide analysis from inside the vehicle. We have recently started to use this new equipment and I anticipate it will help us save people’s lives as well as protect the environment.