The Aum Shinrikyo cult’s 1995 Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system was a seminal event for the Fire Department of the city of New York. The FDNY started to plan for a similar attack on the New York City’s subway system and eventually undertook a major expansion of its hazmat response capabilities. Over the years, the department organized these units in a tiered response system.

The units were equipped with Level A suits as part of their chemical protective clothing (CPC). The decision to use Level A suits was based on the Code of Federal Regulations Title 29 1910.120, which stipulates that Level A suits are to be selected for incidents that require the highest level of skin, respiratory and eye protection. It also specifies that Level A suits must be gas/vapor tight and fully encapsulated. The FDNY’s CPC program specified Level A suits for two vastly different missions — mitigation and rescue.

Tiered Response

The department’s hazmat response group is comprised of 146 units and is arranged in a tiered-response system. The units have different levels of training and equipment, and are tasked with different roles or missions at a hazmat incident.

All FDNY responders are trained to the hazmat operations level in accordance with NFPA 472, Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents. The standard defines provisions and training requirements for operations-level responders who are assigned mission-specific responsibilities, and establishes the framework for the FDNY’s hazmat response group. Let’s take a look at the various units, all of which contribute to the department’s core competency of life safety.

• Chemical protective truck companies are trained to operate in CPC; they extract the injured from the hot zone and assist with technical decontamination.
• Decontamination engines focus on the technical decontamination of ambulatory and non-ambulatory victims.
• SOC support ladder companies provide air monitoring and hazmat detection at an incident, with a focus on hazard assessment and the establishment of control zones.
• EMS HazTac units are staffed by emergency medical technicians or paramedics and are trained in CPC operations in order to provide advanced triage and treatment in the hot zone.
• Hazmat Company 1 and the 16 Hazmat Technician II units are trained in all levels of hazmat response and are the only units task with the mitigation of such incidents.

The tiered response system allows the department to maintain a larger number of units because training is mission-focused, as opposed to training all units to the hazmat technician level. Equipment costs also are manageable under this organizational structure. New York City is the most densely populated major city in the United States with more than 8 million residents jammed into just 305 square miles. Moreover, the city consists of five boroughs — Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx — that are connected by a phalanx of bridges and tunnels, and is the seat of the nation’s financial and media industries. As such, it is a prime terrorist target. FDNY’s hazmat units are distributed so that each of the five boroughs can operate independently, while its tiered approach to hazmat incidents allows the department to handle multiple events, each with a scalable response.

While all of the units are trained for life-safety operations (assessment, packaging and removal) in the hot zone, only the Hazmat Technician II units and Hazmat Company 1 are trained for the mitigation of incidents that require vapor protection. Prior to upgrading its CPC program, the FDNY issued Level A suits to these units.

New Options

The department discovered that for hot-zone responses, fully encapsulated gas-tight garments, i.e., Level A suits, pose several challenges for the first responder. For instance, such suits trap heat and put the responder at risk for heat injury. Also, vision is obscured when moisture (sweat and respiration) condensates on the inside of the visor. If that wasn’t problem enough, the bulkiness of the suit material required the wearing of oversized boots, and the glove system compromised dexterity. Obscured vision, ill-fitting footwear, and decreased dexterity together increased the potential for injury. The packaging and removal of exposed victims are physically demanding tasks that underscore the limitations of using fully encapsulated CPC for hazmat rescues.

It should be noted that the levels of protection (A, B, C, D) outlined in 
CFR 1910.120 are design, not performance standards. In contrast, NFPA standards are performance-based and they influenced the FDNY’s decision to upgrade its CPC program.

NFPA standards that are applicable include to this discussion include the following:

• NFPA 1971: Fire Fighting
• NFPA 1991: Vapor-Protective Ensembles for Hazardous Materials Emergencies

In 2007, NFPA 1994, Protective Ensembles for First Responders to CBRN Terrorism Incidents, was released. This standard parallels the rescue mission of FDNY’s tiered-response system. Because of this standard, as well as innovations that were occurring at the time, the department further evaluated its hazmat equipment and tactics, with the following objectives:

• Increase department response capabilities with mission-specific protection
• Improve responder safety
• Decrease physical impact on responders
• As a result, two garments were selected for inclusion in the department’s CPC program.

The Trelleborg Trellchem VPS Flash suit was selected as an upgraded and improved Level A suit for mitigation missions performed by Hazmat Company 1 and Hazmat Technician II units.

Performance improvements include the following:

• It meets the optional flash-fire standard in NFPA 1991
• No over-garment yields a 7.3-pound weight savings, which decreases physical strain
• Anti-fog hard-impact visor increases safety by improving vision
• Improved dexterity
• Streamlined suit material does not require the use of oversized boots

The VPS Flash Suit improves safety and decreases the demands placed on hazmat technicians. Mitigation missions often require fine motor skills to make repairs; consequently, improvements in vision and dexterity increase the chance of a successful response using one entry team.

In addition, the Lion MT-94 was selected for rescue missions within the hot zone.

Performance improvements compared with the legacy Level A suits include the following:

• A 3- to 4-minute donning time, which improves time-to-victim contact
• Visibility is not an issue due to the non-encapsulating design
• A glove system that provides superior dexterity and protection
• A substantial reduction in heat stress and physical demand on the first responder
• Enhanced garment durability

The MT-94 is a non-encapsulated, gas/vapor-tight garment that is 13 pounds lighter than the previous Level A suit. The substantial improvements in decreasing heat stress are due in large measure to the garment’s unique material, W.L Gore’s Chempak fabric that was developed in response to military and first responder requests for a lightweight, highly mobile and durable garment for use in chemical and biological incident response. The fabric sandwiches a protective barrier between two layers of Nomex fabric.

Reduced heat generation was achieved primarily through the dramatically decreased weight of the garment, but also by increasing its flexibility compared with the Level A suit. Heat stress can be reduced further by wetting the garment with water. A combination of conductive and evaporative cooling occurs when the garment is wetted, which decreases the thermal load on the responder. In turn, reducing heat stress and physical exertion decreases air consumption. So, the responder can remain safely in the hot zone for longer periods. In training exercises, the department has seen a marked increase in the number of extractions a CPC team can complete before members deplete their air supplies. Moreover, the garment’s improved durability has allowed an expansion of tactical areas of operations to include incidents that were considered too damaging to the Level A suit, e.g., collapsed debris areas. Finally, the MT-94 also can be utilized by a rapid-intervention team to respond to injured members of a mitigation team.

All units in the Hazmat Response Group have been issued the MT-94, which replaced the Level A for life-safety operations requiring vapor protection. Meanwhile, the Trellchem VPS Flash suit was issued to Hazmat Technician units tasked with mitigation. Training on the two new garments began in December 2009 so that members would be up to speed on their use before the equipment was distributed. The training programs included both original and refresher training at the department’s hazmat technician school. Evolutions were selected to replicate the skills required for a given mission.

In conclusion, it is vital that chief officers understand the mission-specific provisions of NFPA 472, which will enable them to successfully tailor response capabilities and training to their available resources.

Lt. John Cassidy is a 15-year member of the FDNY and is assigned to Hazmat Company 1. He also is an instructor at the FDNY’s Hazmat Technician School. Cassidy holds an associate’s degree in biomedical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

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