HazSim - Experts & Thought Leaders

Polk County (Fla.) Fire Rescue’s hazmat team recently sent some photos of their HazSim units in action or, more accurately, preparing for action. gas meter Polk County’s hazmat team covers a lot of ground. They have a response area of more than 2,000 square miles with more than 700,000 population; all protected by 60 hazmat team members. The team faces everything from hazmat situations brought on by natural disasters like hurricanes to manmade threats like heavy phosphate mining. Being one of the older hazmat teams, formed in 1973, and spread across such a large area, it is no surprise they have a range of gas meter models. Custom setup Rather than training their team members and firefighters with a “one size fits all” approach, Polk County’s hazmat team went the extra mile to configure their HazSim units to mirror each of their different gas meters. The custom setup is fairly simple, it can be done in-house and take about half an hour. That small amount of setup time and effort lets firefighters and hazmat team members train on HazSim configured to look and behave just like the meters they use on every hazmat call. This means they won’t be wasting valuable training time familiarizing themselves with a new meter, and the evolutions will build confidence and competence in the equipment they use.

On any given day at the Royal Canadian Mint, Protective Services Sgt. Yan Racette must contend with nitric acid, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, and chlorine gas. And those are just some of the products used to refine precious metals as well as nitrogen oxide generated on an industrial scale, all nearby induction furnaces and molten metal emergency side pours. More importantly, Sgt. Racette is charged with training the hazmat team and mint employees on how to avoid and handle hazmat emergencies. Sgt. Racette recently held a 40-hour NFPA 472 training class for nine hazmat technician students. Part of that class involved a challenging hands-on evolution. Sgt. Racette walked the trainee through that evolution to help other instructors build training ideas. Chlorine gas leak This scenario involved a chlorine gas leak with a possible victim. The first-responding hazmat team conducted an assessment in fully encapsulated positive-pressure Level A ensembles in the area where a worker was overcome by chlorine gas while working with a 150-pound chlorine cylinder. When the worker collapsed, the chlorine cylinder toppled over, ripping the pigtail appliance from an inline manifold and cracking the valve. The responders extracted the casualty from the hot zone and brought the casualty to the decontamination corridor where the decon team proceeded with the emergency decon and ongoing patient care. The first-responding hazmat team returned to the hot zone to identify the leak with ammonium hydroxide and secure the leaking chlorine cylinder using the 1A3 device from the Chlorine Institute A kit to safely contain the leak. Authority comment HazSim has been a game changer, as it enables to manipulate the readings of the hot zone “The HazSim is crucial to our training course as we program the interface to represent the Industrial Scientific MX6 Ibrid monitor, one of the monitors that we use during real events,” Sgt. Racette says. “The practicality and versatility of the HazSim enable us to program our actual six sensor configurations, which are oxygen, lower explosive limit, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and chlorine." “As a hazmat instructor, the HazSim has been a game changer, as it enables me to manipulate the readings of the hot zone, thus dictating the course of the event and evolution of the response. In my earlier days as instructor, when I didn’t have access to digital technology, I would have to pause the scenario and yell out or print out gas readings and have the responders relay the information to their incident commander. "Now the responders can keep up with the actual flow of the response in real-time. And they can see the reading climb or subside on a particular sensor if their remedial actions are performed adequately. They can also swiftly relay information to the incident commander whenever a SITREP is requested.”

HazSim and Hazmat Nation hosted its 5th annual networking event at IAFC’s hazmat conference and raised money for the Firefighter Cancer Support Network.  Hazmat Nation networking event More than 200 hazmat professionals attended the fifth annual Hazmat Nation networking event last week in Baltimore in conjunction with the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ hazmat conference. “This gathering has been a great way for hazmat professionals to meet in a relaxed setting, make new connections, and share their trials, tribulations, and success with those working through similar issues,” said Phil Ambrose, inventor, and CEO of HazSim. “This year, we wanted to take it a step further.” Firefighter Cancer Support Network Hazmat Nation and HazSim used the event to raise money for the Firefighter Cancer Support Network Hazmat Nation and HazSim used the event to raise money for the Firefighter Cancer Support Network. The pairing made sense as responder cancer and hazmat are so close, and unfortunately, linked. “We are grateful, though not surprised, by how well received the fundraiser was by hazmat professionals,” Ambrose said. “We were testing the waters this year, to make the fundraising a bigger part of our event next year and in the years to come. We are strong believers in the work and mission of FCSN, and it appears the hazmat community is as well.” Support, Training, And Guidance FCSN, a national nonprofit with more than 250 volunteers nationwide, has been serving firefighters battling cancer since 2005. “FCSN is grateful for the support of HazSim and Hazmat Nation to help our mission, to assist firefighters and EMS providers and their immediate families diagnosed with cancer by providing critical support, training, and guidance,” said Bryan Frieders, President of FCSN and retired fire chief of the Pasadena Fire Department in California.  badge-to-badge mentorship program The key sponsors include Kappler, First Line Technology, First Call Environmental, and All Safe Industries “Their meaningful contribution helps us deliver our free toolboxes and unique badge-to-badge mentorship program to firefighters and cancer prevention education programs nationwide.” Much of the event’s success is thanks to the corporate partners whose sponsorship allowed free food, drinks, a swag bag, and a memorable T-shirt. The key sponsors include Kappler, First Line Technology, First Call Environmental, and All Safe Industries, who offered bourbon-tasting flights from its home state of Kentucky. Hazmat response and training “Our sponsors made all the difference in the world in making this a success,” Ambrose said. “We look forward to furthering our partnerships with them as this event grows in scope and purpose in the coming years.” “Hazmat response and training improves when hazmat professionals can build bonds and share their knowledge,” Ambrose said. This annual event and the daily work at Hazmat Nation are dedicated to building those bonds.

Firefighters must be trained once or twice a year to keep their skills sharp. Providing that training in a safe environment is a challenge, and virtual reality (VR) enables exposure to the experience of firefighting. VR training In 2017, W.S. Darley & Co. first began offering VR training by partnering with virtual reality startup FLAIM, becoming their exclusive distributor in the United States. Today, Darley has sold VR systems from several manufacturers successfully to medium size fire departments and is on the verge of closing sales to several metro departments by the end of 2022. Red tape in larger departments can slow down the adoption curve. the benefit of VR training A benefit of VR training is to provide more “sets and reps;” that is, more repetition of important tasks A benefit of VR training is to provide more “sets and reps;” that is, more repetition of important tasks that provide a trainee with “muscle memory” that can kick in during an actual emergency. Real-life training costs thousands of dollars for each firefighter for each event. In contrast, virtual training can be achieved at a rate of $15 or so an hour. real-time response “Virtual reality provides an opportunity to put firefighters in an environment where they can fail safely,” says Kevin Sofen, Business Development Director, W. S. Darley & Co. “After the fact, instructors and students can analyze how effectively they completed the session and discuss the risks of doing something the wrong way. Biometric measures, provided by devices such as heart rate monitors, can analyze a trainee’s real-time response to various fire scenarios.” safety Another argument is safety: Training virtually enables firefighters to avoid contact with possible carcinogens. VR can offset the use of “burn towers,” when stacks of ballets are set on fire. There is no tolerance for injury or death to firefighters during training, and VR helps to keep injuries as close to zero as possible. Grant Assistance Program Grant consultants provide support throughout the process, including researching grants available for first responders Darley provides a Grant Assistance Program to help fire departments buy VR equipment. Darley works with Lexipol to guide fire departments to navigate how they apply to any of the hundreds of local and federal grant programs. The program helps departments find available funding that meets current and long-term training goals. The process can take six to eight months and requires an investment of time by the fire service. Available grant programs include SAFER, AFG, FEMA, and local, state, and private grants. Lexipol grant consultants provide support throughout the process, including researching grants available for first responders, and understanding requirements, timelines, and applications. Simulating response  One of Darley’s biggest wins in terms of VR training has been providing systems to the U.S. Air Force, which trains using VRthe to simulate the response to airplane fires without dumping thousands of gallons of foam into the environment, which would be required with real-life training. Darley has also sold VR systems to several community colleges for their fire science programs. It is unlawful to expose someone under 18 years old to an actual fire, so VR helps them prepare for a career later. Fire training For the next generation, which is comfortably exposed to the digital world through gaming and hangout environments, training with VR is a natural fit. For secondary and postsecondary schools, Perkins Grants provide funding to support career and technical education programs. Fire training is just one of the many emerging uses for virtual reality, which first gained traction with Facebook’s purchase of Oculus in 2014. VR products improved around 2017 and 2018, and the cost of the hardware came down in the next couple of years. For the fire service, among other benefits, VR offers a tool for recruitment. VR Applications   There are a lot of benefits to come from reevaluating how departments spend money and how training is done When the COVID pandemic hit, more new uses for VR emerged as companies sought ways to train at scale without interacting or having to travel. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Oculus sold a million headset units, priced around $300 each, reflecting the rise in mainstream adoption. An obstacle to replacing live fire with rain with the use of virtual reality is the argument that “we have always done it this way.” However, there are a lot of benefits to come from reevaluating how departments spend money and how training is done. There is a need to get beyond the perception of the fire service as “100 years of tradition unimpeded by progress.” Improve fire training Sofen urges skeptics not to dismiss the technology until they have tried it for themselves in a live and immersive demonstration. “If you see a demo of it, you can see how it can be a useful tool in training,” he says. One of Darley’s VR partners, FLAIM Trainer and Extinguisher, is on a mission to improve fire training, increase the opportunities to train, and support fire departments’ abilities to stay compliant. multi-sensory hardware and software solution The systems provide a fully immersive, multi-sensory hardware and software solution. Six degrees of movement heighten the training experience. Firefighters train on smoke and operate in a (simulated) dense smoke environment with zero visibility. Biometrics tracks firefighters’ responses to various situations and the use of self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) hardware promotes a sense of reality. The system seeks to trick a student’s brain into feeling as if they are on an oil field dealing with a levee that is flaring up, for example. interactive and engaging teaching tool RiVR Link and Investigate provide an interactive and engaging teaching tool using 360° video and images Another partner, RiVR Link and Investigate provides a “classroom in a box,” with three degrees of freedom, enabling the student to look left or right, up or down. It is an interactive and engaging teaching tool for classroom education using 360° video and images. The system makes it easy for a fire service to create their content using a 360° camera to capture a scene, then put it into a VR headset. hands-on, real-time simulations A third partner, HazSim Training Simulator, provides first responders and hazmat workers with hands-on, interactive, real-time simulations that mirror dangerous environments and improve the learning experience without the use of dangerous agents. The system simulates any gas meter in an interactive training experience covering how it is used in the field. The trainer uses a tablet and can modify differing CO and methane levels. innovation and support The VR training systems reflect Darley’s dedication to innovation and to supporting the fire service. Some 75% of the company’s revenue comes from products that did not exist for five years. It also expands beyond the company’s traditional reliance on selling equipment to now selling services, software, and subscriptions. After 100 years, Darley will continue to reinvent itself as the market evolves. W.S. Darley & Company has launched a new technology division that will encompass all of the company’s current drone, virtual reality, and training programs while expanding to meet emerging customer needs in the unmanned systems market. The new entity is called the Unmanned Systems, Metaverse & Robotics (USMR) Division.