When Congress holds hearings to discuss national policy for WMD response, John Eversole often speaks as the fire service “hazmat guy.” Eversole was on the team that practically invented hazmat response for the fire service.

The retired chief of special operations for the Chicago Fire Department, Eversole was a founding committee member of NFPA 472, Professional Competence of Emergency Responders to Hazardous Materials Incidents. He now chairs that committee as well as the IAFC Hazardous Materials Committee. In recognition of his efforts to improve fire service preparedness across the country, the Congressional Fire Services Institute awarded him its 2001 Mason Lankford Leadership Award.

Are you being heard at the Department of Homeland Security?

There are people at DHS who understand our problems, but sometimes we don't get the priority seat. When it comes to actual funding, we've gotten more money than we ever did before, but if you look at the percentage of money we get compared to other operations, we're a little person in a big system. Obviously, DHS has a difficult job and is trying to do many things, but we're kind of an afterthought.

Billions of dollars are now coming out of Washington to invest in our defenses. Is enough of it getting to local fire departments?

No. I need to be very blunt. Homeland Security is sometimes more concerned with security than they are with safety. That's their business. But at the same time, when something goes wrong — and this was really proven in September 2001 — we're the ones who have to handle it.…

When there's an emergency, we can't wait for someone to come from Washington, or wherever they come from. It has to be handled in a matter of minutes by local people. If we can at least start the ball rolling and do the right things to begin with, we can significantly minimize the situation. If we aren't able to do that, it is truly a disaster.

What's happening now with NFPA 472?

The standard is well-established and widely accepted. We've been writing it since about 1985, and we're very proud of it because it was put together by a combination of the people who actually respond to hazmat incidents, technical experts and government officials. After the 1995 Tokyo sarin attack, we had to go into a whole new world of weapons of mass destruction, because we strongly believe that you can't handle chem-bio weapons if you don't understand the basics of hazardous materials.

In 2002, we put out our latest edition. It's the standard that just about every state trains its emergency responders by for hazmat response. But it's a continuing process. For example, now the government has pulled off high-pressure tube railroad cars. These were special railroad cars that had long tubes in them to transport high-pressure gases, like helium, and they've done away with those cars. This is going to be a rare instance where we can go back into our next meeting and say we no longer have to teach about this; that product is now being shipped by truck.

What is the IAFC Hazmat Committee currently working on?

We hold the International Hazmat Team Conference, and this year again we were able to set attendance records, even with the economy the way it is. It's a very good learning experience for people to come and meet other hazmat people from around the country and learn the latest techniques and problems.…

We also continually monitor what's going on with national politics in the hazardous materials field. Right now, the Department of Transportation has put out a request for comment on a new Emergency Response Guidebook. We had to answer that. We're looking at the new global harmonizing and making sure that our people will realize those changes are coming.

We're also looking at a move by the DHS to remove placards from some railroad cars. We're carefully watching and participating in these discussions, because we don't think that's a good move at all. Obviously, they're very interested in security, and all of us have to be interested in security today, but we have to be able to transport hazardous materials in a safe and effective way.… We feel to remove those warning placards from railroad cars would be a grave disservice to the entire community — not only emergency responders.… So we're reviewing that system and working with the American Association of Railroads to make sure that if there's a better way to do it, we find it. But we are certainly not willing to give up placarding without something to replace it that works as quickly and easily.