Hazardous Materials (Haz-Mat) Response

The City of Waltham has the second largest amount of office space in the state, which includes many laboratories and facilities that use or produce hazardous materials. We also find ourselves with nearly every mode of transportation used to transport hazardous materials either running through our city or in very close proximity to our borders. This includes an interstate highway (I-95/Route 128), active railroad tracks cutting across the middle of the city, numerous state roads and side streets, and Hanscom Field/Air Force Base & Logan Airport just miles away.

Potential hazardous materials can also be found in our own homes. This means that a Haz-Mat incident could occur anywhere in our city. It could involve a small residential problem or large industrial accident. Hazardous materials can be chemical or biological in nature. The recent rise in terrorist threats also point to our need to be ready for a hazardous materials response.

The Waltham Fire Department works in conjunction with the state's hazardous mateirals response teams to handle these types of incidents. Our firefighters are trained to be hazardous materials first responders. This means we are first on scene and provide the initial response to an incident. Depending on the severity of the incident, we activate the state haz-mat teams according to their 4-tier system outlined below:

 

The Waltham Fire Department can usually handle most Level 0 and Level 1 incidents on its own. It is usually the Level 2 and 3 incidents which require assistance from the state's specially trained teams. However, it all depends on the type of material involved in each incident.