The Hazards of HAZMAT

Photo By Gunnery Sgt. Tyler Hlavac | Master Sgt. Thomas Auletta, one of the chief hazardous materials operations instructors with Environmental Services Detachment D, evaluates two students as they investigate a mock chemical spill during a hazardous material response training scenario.  

ST. JOHN'S, ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

03.17.2011

Story by Cpl. Tyler Hlavac 

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, South

CAMP CRABBS, Antigua and Barbuda – The hazardous material training begins with a simple scenario.

Several Marines from the Environmental Services Detachment D posing as victims begin to cough and cry for help after a simulated chemical spill occurs inside the barracks. The 31 students, who are a collection of soldiers, firemen and police from Antigua and Barbuda, have spent the past two weeks training with the ESD Marines and rush to the scene.

Three of them suit up in respirators and oxygen tanks and walk inside the barracks to investigate the situation. The students know they are being evaluated and are relatively calm as they walk inside the barracks. Once inside, however, their state of calm quickly changes.

“You’ve now been exposed to a chemical environment,” says Master Sgt. Thomas Auletta, one of the chief hazardous materials operations instructors with ESD Det. D, as he surveys the students.

It’s a simple statement, but it causes the students to hesitate and pause for seconds with only the sounds of heavy breathing through respirators filling the air. Then the training kicks in and the students are on the move again. Surveying the scene, they see two Marines on the floor, unresponsive, and two Marines coughing on the simulated fumes. The responders quickly assist the Marines and help them walk out of the barracks.

Outside an ambulance and fire truck are already on the scene and groups of students quickly move about and take up different response roles. Some take up positions at decontamination stations and others set up a command center to find out what chemical they are dealing with as well as preparing to coordinate with any media or government representatives who may show up looking for information on the situation.

One of the initial responders, Cortwright Anthony, a corporal with the Antigua and Barbuda Fire Department, exits the barracks after rescuing the mock victims and heads to a decontamination stations where he is quickly cleansed of any chemicals. Anthony, like the other students, has spent the last 15 days learning about such topics as recognizing hazardous materials, confined spaces and rappelling training, how to wear proper protective gear and more in an effort to become a certified HAZMAT Response Technician. After catching his breath, Anthony offers an initial assessment of how he and the initial responders performed.

“It was a good experience and I had a lot of adrenaline flowing. We saw the substance and the patients on the ground. We worked as a team and tried to save them. I’d give us a grade B, as there is always room for improvement.”

Anthony and his group aren’t the last ones to go inside the barracks, however. There are still two non-responsive victims inside who need to be retrieved and a second group suits up to retrieve them. At this point the agent has been identified as most likely ammonia and the newest groups upgrades their level of protection as they will be exposed longer while trying to rescue the non-responsive victims.

The suits the students put on are thick, bright yellow and full bodied, without an inch of skin exposed. The suits strongly resemble most protective suits seen in any movie dealing with a viral outbreak.

Although they offer a higher level of protection, the suits are thick, awkward to move in, and amplify the already formidable Caribbean heat.

After removing the victims, who at this point are identified as deceased, the scenario began to wind down as the last group of responders were decontaminated and the surviving victims were sent to the ‘hospital’ for further treatment.

Fire Department Constable Anderson Tuitt, who was one of the two students who removed the last victims, described how he felt during his portion of the exercise.

“The suit was hot…real hot,” Tuitt said, laughing and sipping on water as sweat ran down his face. “This training felt real…the suits, the unknown chemicals…I would love more of this training. I felt really comfortable working with them (the other students). They took it (the training) seriously and we really brought everything together. I came with limited skills but now I have a lot more than I came in with.”

As the students began to wrap up the training, Master Gunnery Sgt. James McEniry, the staff noncommissioned officer in charge of ESD Det. D, offered his evaluation of the student’s performance. McEniry and many of the instructors with ESD Det. D have civilian jobs as police officers and firefighters and have dealt with real-life HAZMAT situations before. Their experience makes them a good fit for ESD Det. D, whose mission in a nut shell is to provide environmental and hazmat material expertise to Marine Corps units, as well as to assist in any disaster or HAZMAT response if called upon.

“The training went awesome. We managed to put everything they (the students) were taught into a simulated real-life incident,” said McEniry. “The training the students learned here they could have to apply at any time. For example one day we taught a radiation class and then the next day the news started talking about situation with the reactors in Japan after the quake. With the hurricanes and earthquakes that happen in the Caribbean, this training is real for these guys.”

The HAZMAT training scenario was conducted as part of exercise Tradewinds 2011.

Tradewinds is a joint-combined, interagency exercise involving U.S. personnel from the Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard, Joint-interagency Task Force-South, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation along with forces from: Antigua and Barbuda (host nation), Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Colombia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago.

• Date Taken: 03.17.2011
• Date Posted: 03.17.2011 23:47
• Story ID: 67240
• Location: ST. JOHN'S, AG