SOP Manual - Cleveland Fire Department

Cleveland Fire Department
Operations Manual
Level IV
Fixed Site
A hazardous material (s) incident has occurred and requires community evacuation or in-place sheltering.
Resources to handle the size of the incident or material (s) will exceed all local resources.
Transportation
A transport vehicle has been involved in an incident: (Any combination of the following)
1. A fire or explosion has occurred involving the vehicle.
2. A leak/spill has occurred that is more that the EPA RQ.
3. Community evacuation has occurred or is necessary.
4. Resources to handle the size of the incident or material (s) will exceed all local resources.
Decision-Making Process
The following decision-making model is taken from the National Fire Academy’s Initial Response to
Hazardous Materials Incidents course. The process here is logical and easy to follow and is the one that the
majority of members have been trained with.
1. Gather Information
This is the first step in any Hazmat incident. The information gathered here will be the basis for the entire
incident. Due to the importance of this information, each piece will have to be assessed for importance and
relevance and then prioritized for later use.
2. Estimate Course and Harm
Based on the information gathered decisions must be made on the current and probable course of the
incident and the possible harm to all exposures involved. The worst case scenario should also be considered
and prepared for but not to the extent that we use assets and resources that can be used to avoid this
scenario.
3. Develop Strategic Goals
The strategic goals are broad, overall outcomes of how we want the incident to develop. As in all planning
processes we want to develop more that one strategic goal and plan.
4. Assess the Strategic Goals
Are the goals presented possible given the elements of safety, personnel, equipment, weather, etc. Decide
on which one (s) will be the most effective and safe and then proceed.
Effective: June 1, 1997 Revised: 5/14/2009 Page | 133
Approved by: Chief Chuck Atchley