There is a new truck on the block, kind of, in the hands of the Sioux City Fire Department.
The department's new Hazardous Material Emergency Response unit, or Hammer 12 as the men and women of the fire department call it, took to the streets in January of 2003 to become the department's second HAZMAT vehicle.
According to Assistant Fire Chief Jim Clark, the department decided in 2002 to convert a city-owned 1991 GMC truck into a HAZMAT unit to save money and replace a deteriorating 31-year-old rig.
"The best thing about this is that the vehicle was a big savings for the city by using an older chassis that would have normally gone to the city auction and sold for a small amount of money," Clark said, the HAZMAT/EMS coordinator for the fire department. "The city already owned the cab and chassis so it was just a matter of paying to have the frame lengthened and the box installed."
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Clark said Hammer 12 arrived at Station 8 with a price tag of $93,950, adding a brand new unit would have cost upwards of $175,000.
The vehicle, which may have been a dump truck at one time, was taken to the Rock Rapids, Iowa based Amtech Emergency Products for rehabilitation. The process involved lengthening the frame and customizing the body for hazardous material response purposes. Amtech was also the company that produced the department's primary hazardous material response vehicle.
Hammer 13 is the main vehicle for the department's HAZMAT response program and is housed at Station 7, located at 3252 Floyd Blvd.
In 1997, the Regional HAZMAT Response program began between the Sioux City Fire Department and 12 Iowa counties. The program provides a specialized team charged with responding to each county's request for assistance when there has been or there is a potential for the release of hazardous materials.
"The new rig replaced a 1973 very small step van that we used as a backup for our primary HAZMAT vehicle. With the fact that the main regional response vehicle can respond anywhere in Northwest Iowa, it made sense to have a backup. If our first-line rig needs to be out of service for anything from an oil change to a major repair, now we have a more capable backup rig to go out in," Clark said.
The new truck on the block isn't as souped-up as the Hammer 13, a 1998 Freightliner. It lacks a portable weather station, a remote video camera and some air monitoring equipment, but Clark said it is plenty capable of handling an emergency chemical leak or spill. The new truck carries HAZMAT suits and decontamination equipment and features a heated section in the middle of the truck that can act as a command center and houses a desktop computer that can map gas releases and contains resource materials, such as a chemical library.
Red, white and chrome, the 28-foot-long rig is normally staffed by three Station 8 firefighters who are also HAZMAT technicians. Clark said the technicians complete at least 80 hours of hazardous material training every year.
In times of crisis, Clark said six firefighters will head out in Hammer 12.
Overall the new HAZMAT truck increased the fire department's response capabilities and is an addition to homeland security efforts. The truck is also occasionally dispatched to fire scenes.
"It has a light tower on top that is capable of lighting up a scene. It also has a cascade system that allows us to fill air bottles out at a scene instead of having to drive back to the station. This basically increases our ability to respond to an emergency situation," Clark, a 20-year veteran of the fire department, said.
Jesse Claeys can be reached at (712) 293-4221 or jesseclaeys@siouxcityjournal.com
