GREENFIELD — The clear liquid sputtered from the ruptured tank trucker, spilling onto the tire and roadway below, while two nearby firefighters donned rebreathers and cumbersome teal-colored hazardous materials suits.
That attire, pulled from cubbies built into the side of a massive, red-and-white emergency truck, represented some of their toughest protective gear — that liquid could be anything and they knew they had to act fast.
Luckily, that day it was just some ordinary water and the tanker truck hadn’t actually crashed.
The firefighters — members of the state Department of Fire Services’ District 4 Hazardous Materials Response team — were spending the day at the Franklin County Fairgrounds on Wisdom Way to conduct their monthly training exercises.
The tanker truck itself was actually a simulation device designed to replicate real-life conditions encountered during hazardous material spills so firefighters can practice containing and cleaning them up.
The training on Wednesday started with classroom instruction at the South Deerfield Fire Station on Routes 5 and 10, then the firefighters traveled to the fairgrounds to apply what they’d just learned, according to Jon Davine, the Northampton Fire Department’s assistant chief and a long-time training coordinator and member of the team.
Drawn from Greenfield, Northampton, Springfield, Chicopee, Amherst, Westfield, South Hadley, West Springfield and Agawam, the firefighters were drilled in grounding and bonding trucks to ensure fugitive fumes wouldn’t be ignited by static electricity at the scene of an accident or spill, and patching ruptures and punctures in containers carrying hazardous materials.
Davine said the team responds to anything from an illegal drug lab explosion or homemade bomb situation to major acid spills and potential biological terror attacks. They train at least once every month, sometimes more.
The team was mobilized locally to help clean up chemicals released from a tanker truck that crashed on Route 2 in Factory Hollow last fall, Davine said.
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