Monday July 31, 2006

Las Cruces Firefighter's Place 1st at NM Hazmat Challenge

The Las Cruces Fire Department Hazardous Materials Response Team (HMRT) earned first place in the technical category and second place overall in the 10th Annual 2006 New Mexico Hazmat Challenge at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, NM, last week.

The five day competition, which wrapped up on Friday, 28 July, tested the hazardous materials emergency response skills of 15 hazmat teams from across the region. The five representatives from the Las Cruces HMRT, lead by Firefighter David Aguirre, placed first in the technical category after competing in eight separate events including a fixed facilities scenario, biological and chemical identification, a radiological scenario, a chlorine leak on a railcar, a damming and diking exercise, a cargo tanker fuel spill scenario, and a confined space search and rescue.

The competition concluded Friday with an obstacle course which tests competitors’ fine motor skills, agility and cardiovascular strength while wearing full chemical protective clothing and breathing apparatus. After totaling up the scores from the obstacle course, the Las Cruces HMRT placed second overall. The Las Cruces hazmat team, stationed at Missouri and Telshor, placed 6th overall last year at the 2005 Challenge.

The Las Cruces HMRT also sent an evaluator to Los Alamos for the competition, Firefighter Vicente Zamora. Firefighter Zamora has participated in this event for the last three years.

Competitors included teams from fire departments in Clovis, Espanola, Farmington, Gallup, Los Alamos, Midwest City, OK, Norman, OK, Portales and Santa Fe. Other competitors included two teams from the Intel Corporation, Los Alamos National Laboratory Hazmat, New Mexico National Guard 64th CST, and New Mexico State Police.