Fire departments’ duties have changed dramatically since Robert Royall began his career at the Houston Fire Department in 1973. What started as a focus on firefighting has evolved into an all-hazards occupation. Now, instead of stomping out residential fires, Royal now oversees hazmat operations for the Harris County (Texas) Fire Marshal’s office — which protects one of the busiest petrochemical ports in the world as well as 4 million residents.

Royall’s hazmat career started early on when he was a member of Houston's Hazmat Response Team, one of the oldest in the nation after the Jacksonville (Fla.) Fire Department’s. In 1978, Houston’s then-Fire Chief V.E. Rogers saw a presentation about Jacksonville’s recently formed hazmat team and thought that if anyone needed such resources, it was Houston, because the city was the petrochemical capital of the world. Rogers tasked District Chief Max H. McRae to organize the team and develop the program.

In 1981, Royall was promoted and given command of a southeast fire station, which also included the industrial corridor of the Houston Ship Channel, part of the Port of Houston, where many energy and petrochemical companies were located. The department’s move foreshadowed events that would show the need for emergency hazmat teams.

In December 1984, a pesticide plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal leaked its contents and exposed hundreds of thousands of people to toxins. Estimates vary on the death toll, but a government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severe and permanently disabling injuries.

“This incident brought to the forefront the need for an organized response to these specialized chemical events,” Royall said.

Nearly five years later — and right in Royall’s own backyard — an explosion and ensuing fire occurred at the Phillips Petroleum Houston Chemical Complex, resulting in 23 known dead and one missing. In addition, more than 100 people were injured, and metal and concrete debris was found as far as six miles away following the explosion, the U.S. Fire Administration reported.

It was the first of several national events that lead to public support for the mitigation and response to major incidents. And it wasn’t chemical spills alone — the new threat of terrorism further emphasized the need for a trained force. After the first attempted bombing of the World Trade Center in 1992, followed by Oklahoma City Bombing, and Tokyo sarin-gas attack in 1995, it was clear that the fire service would need to be able to respond to any chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) disasters, Royall said.

“It is the single most demanding responsibility that has been put on the fire service since EMS,” he said.

Now, as hazmat chief for Harris County, Royall ensures the marshal’s office can response to CBRN events, especially in the Port of Houston — home to 29 of the world’s largest energy producers. The in-house Emergency Operations Branch, also known as the hazmat group, is responsible for planning, mitigating and recovering from emergencies and disasters, whether natural, accidental or deliberate. The branch is staffed by hazmat technicians that support local fire and law enforcement in hazardous spills and releases, and perform safety inspections of facilities that store, sell or use hazardous materials. The team can respond to day-to-day events, in addition to the possibility of a nefarious act.

“They also assist in investigative efforts where hazardous materials and WMDs are involved,” he said.

The team consists of 30 personnel, which includes full- and part-time employees as well as fire inspectors and investigators who are cross-trained and can be leveraged as force multiplies. The operating budget is around $2.2 million annually is allocated to run the team, which includes personnel and equipment costs.

Several pieces of equipment are used to respond to events, including a mobile hazmat response command post, dubbed Hazmat 1. It holds the advanced detection technologies and identifications, Level A chemical response protective clothing and encrypted communications. As a complement, the marshal’s office also has Hazmat 2, a tender used to deliver foam to industrial chemical incidents. They also have a hazmat response boat since they are located in upper Galveston Bay, Texas, Royall said.

While Royall is more than proud of Harris County’s capabilities, it is only one of the many hats he and his personnel are asked to wear. For example, the office also operates the Harris County Fire Training Academy and fire investigations, such as arson.

“I am in a unique situation because I have arson plus WMD response technicians and I am able to use the law-enforcement part of my part of command for environmental crime issues,” he said. “We are able to do a lot of things within one agency.”

Look for more on hazmat operations in our December issue.