A report released this month by the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General tongue-lashed the Los Alamos County (N.M.) Fire Department for inadequately training its firefighters after the agency paid 100% of the county fire department's $135 million operations under a cooperative agreement. The report claimed that over the last 11 years, the county’s firefighters weren’t trained to handle hazmat fires, specifically at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a large nuclear research and development complex.

Chief Doug Tucker said the report focused too much on the past and not on the efforts made in the last seven years to improve firefighter training. He said the county on average fights at least four wildland fires on LANL property and two fires insides its hundreds of facilities annually and “we haven’t lost a lab to a fire yet,” he said.

Tucker said there has been progress on firefighter training, facility and hazard knowledge over the last year. For example, a cooperative agreement requires fire-department participation for hazmat facility exercises. Since FY 2008, the fire department has been providing support for 15 to 20 exercises each year, which require their response to hazardous material release events due to fires or explosions. He said the department’s firefighters also have been raising their awareness of potential facility events, hazards, access requirements, fire suppression needs and capabilities, and LANL emergency response support.

Tucker said the report incorrectly cites that fire department commonly does not participate in such exercises. He said that the report of a minimal participation may have been accurate for previous years, but the department’s participation improved.

“We have made a lot of effort and strides and it wasn’t noted in the report,” Tucker said.

The inspector general report blamed many of the problems on the lack of a formal contract between the county, LANL and the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration. Instead, fire, emergency medical services and technical rescue services to the lab under a "pre-contract" cooperative agreement, according to the report.