Access to provincial resources for CBRN response and HUSAR
The Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) has recently received several requests for information on how to access the resources of the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) response teams and heavy urban search and rescue (HUSAR) teams operating under memorandums of understanding (MOU) with the Government of Ontario and available to respond to significant emergencies across the province.

In this context, significant emergency is defined as:

• a large-scale or complex natural or human caused chemical, biological radiological, or nuclear emergency, or

• a large-scale or complex natural or human caused heavy urban search and rescue emergency,
  where

• the need for resources to respond effectively to the situation exceeds local capabilities, and

• the municipality has declared an emergency or is in the process of doing so.

An update on the CBRN response and HUSAR teams and a brief outline of activation procedures are provided below.

CBRN response teams
The OFM has provided Ontario fire departments with access to self-study training at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 472 Awareness Level, that is, Level 1.

The NFPA Standard 472, Professional Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials Incidents, covers minimum competencies of persons responding to hazardous materials incidents and specifies three levels:

• Level 1 or Awareness level: first responders are expected to recognize the presence of hazardous materials, protect themselves, call for trained personnel and secure the area;

• Level 2 or Operations level: persons who respond as part of initial response are expected to respond in defensive manner to control the release of hazardous materials from a safe distance and keep it from spreading;

• Level 3 or Technician level: person who responds for the purpose of controlling the release of hazardous materials using specialized protective clothing and control equipment.

The Province of Ontario currently has memorandums of understanding with Windsor, Toronto and Ottawa. Under these agreements, teams from the Windsor, Toronto and Ottawa fire departments are available to respond to hazardous materials and CBRN emergencies at the NFPA Standard 472 Technician Level. The teams are now operational and can be deployed to incidents that fall within the category of “significant emergency.” A minimum of 12 fire department staff members trained to the Technician level would respond upon activation.

The Province of Ontario also has memorandums of understanding with Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Peterborough and Cornwall. Under these agreements, teams from the Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Peterborough and Cornwall fire departments will be capable of response at the NFPA Standard 472 Operations Level. The Province has provided initial training and response equipment to the teams. It is expected that the teams, which are currently conducting internal training, will become operational by April 1, 2004. A minimum of eight fire department staff members trained to the Operations level would respond upon activation.

HUSAR team
The Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto have signed a memorandum of understanding and agreed that a Toronto HUSAR team would provide a response capability to HUSAR incidents on a province-wide basis. The City of Toronto is responsible for the training and development of the members of the HUSAR team. Initial training of the program instructors through various qualified outside providers has been completed. The city’s training facility has been expanded to enable the delivery of subsequent training at the local level.

The selection of additional team members begins in January 2004 and training will begin shortly after. The team is composed of members from fire, police, and emergency medical services, and structural engineers from the City of Toronto. Once the team has been fully trained, approximately 70 team members will be available to respond upon activation. The number of responders and the composition of the team will depend on the seriousness and circumstances of each incident.

The team provided a limited response to two significant emergencies in Toronto in 2003. As the training of the additional team members progresses, the team’s response capability will increase.

Activating the CBRN response and HUSAR teams
Teams may be activated through the county, district or region fire coordinator, subject to the following conditions being met:

• The local municipality has responded but has insufficient resources or capability to effectively deal with or resolve the situation.

• Appropriate resources available through the local county, district or region are also insufficient to effectively deal with or resolve the situation.

• The fire coordinator, or alternate, for the county, district or region has verified that the two conditions above have been met.

• The municipality has declared an emergency, or is in the process of doing so.

To request the assistance of the teams, the fire coordinator contacts the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC) and provides information about the emergency, including the exact location. Once it has been determined by the POC that the incident in question is a “significant emergency” and that the conditions listed above have been met, appropriate approval will be given to deploy the resources of one or more of the teams to the scene.

Concurrently, the POC will contact the OFM to request that its support personnel and equipment be deployed. The POC will also deploy the Emergency Management Ontario Provincial Emergency Response Team (PERT) to provide advice and assistance to community officials. If necessary and appropriate, the OPP Provincial Emergency Response Team (PERT) will also be deployed.

Access to resources for lesser emergencies
A fire department may have to respond to incidents that are not “significant emergencies” but that nonetheless are beyond the fire department’s capabilities and require additional resources. In these situations, the fire coordinator may contact the POC. Arrangements will then be made to contact the OFM to request technical and/or equipment support in order to potentially resolve the situation. The OFM may in turn request specialized technical expertise from the memorandums of understanding partners or other sources of assistance to help the fire department.

Provincial Emergency Operations Centre
The Provincial Emergency Operations Centre may be reached on a 24-hour basis at (416) 314-0472 or toll free at 1-866-314-0472.