Hazmat Ops Instructor Guide.pdf - Livonia Professional Firefighters

FIRST RESPONDER OPERATIONS
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS
UNIT 2: RECOGNIZING HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Clues for Recognizing Hazardous Materials:
Clue #4 – Placards, Labels, and Markings (continued)
NFPA 704 Marking System:
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has developed a
marking system for fixed sites to indicate the dangers associated with
various hazardous materials handled at a location. This marking system
is not used in transportation, and is not federally regulated or
required. However, it can be mandated by local ordinance.
The NFPA marking system (detailed in NFPA 704) uses a diamond
divided into four color-coded quadrants. Each quadrant is a specific
color and indicates hazard type:
— Health Hazards: Blue
— Flammability Hazard: Red
— Reactivity Hazards: Yellow
— Special Hazards: White
The health, flammability, and reactivity hazards are ranked from zero
to four. Zero indicates no risk and four indicates the greatest possible
risk. The hazard area may contain a special symbol or letter to indicate
a specific danger.
NFPA recognizes two types of special hazard symbols:
A. OX indicates an oxidizer
B. W indicates a water-reactive material
Although not recognized by NFPA, some localities may insert the letters
ALK for alkaline materials and ACID for acidic materials. A trefoil
indicates radioactive, COR indicates corrosive, and SA indicates simple
asphyxiant. The pre-incident planning stage affords an ideal opportunity
to note such local practices.
Key Point
Since different hazardous materials may
be stored together at a fixed site, the
NFPA 704 numbers displayed often represent
a cumulative hazard rating for all
of the materials stored. Alone, very few
materials have an NFPA 704 rating of 4-
4-4, although First Responders are likely
to see such a rating at a fixed site where
multiple different products are manufactured
or stored.
NFPA Diamond Example
A
4
B
3
W
D
2
A. Health Hazard Blue
B. Flammability Hazard Red
C. Reactivity Hazard Yellow
D. Special Hazards White
C
A NFPA 704 diamond is shown in the right column. The numbers in
this example indicate a very significant health hazard (4), a significant
flammability hazard (3), and moderate reactivity (2). The W indicates
the special hazard of water-reactivity.
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