10-Minute Training: The Hazmat Collection

10-Minute Training hazmat tactical decision games help firefighters, company officers, and command officers exercise command skills during the initial stages of hazardous materials incidents. These scenarios focus on size-up, product identification, control zones, protective action distances, atmospheric monitoring, resource determination, and command transfer.

How to Use This Collection

Choose tactical decision games that match the types of hazardous materials incidents you may encounter in your response area. Have participants answer the questions before group discussion. When prompted, put answers in the form of radio communications, task assignments, or command transfer reports.

This collection includes several types of hazmat incidents:

• Flammable gas incidents: odor of gas, propane leaks, gas explosions, and BLEVE risk.
• Toxic atmosphere / medical-hazmat incidents: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and multiple symptomatic patients.
• Transportation and container incidents: cargo tanks, railcars, fuel spills, and chemical releases.
• Unusual hazards in ordinary occupancies: fireworks, acetylene cylinders, and incompatible chemicals.

Hazmat References

Many of these tactical decision games use the following reference tools.

• Emergency Response Guidebook
• NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards
• CAMEO Chemicals
• Product specific safety data sheets

Caution

These hazmat tactical decision games support incident command practice and discussion. They do not replace agency SOPs, hazardous materials technician training, hazardous materials reference materials, product-specific references, or consultation with hazmat technicians, specialists, or industry representatives.

Build a Hazmat Training Sequence

Many firefighters and fire officers find hazmat incidents challenging. One way to build confidence and competence is to sequence tactical decision games from familiar to less familiar and from lower complexity to higher complexity.

For example, firefighters and fire officers commonly respond to fuel spills and reported odors of gas involving propane or natural gas. These incidents provide a useful starting point. Then crews can move to more complex facility, transportation, and container incidents involving less familiar materials such as corrosives, toxic gases, oxidizers, and incompatible chemicals.

A useful sequence might start with an odor of gas, then move to a propane leak, gas explosion, carbon monoxide incident, cargo tank fire, fuel spill, railcar leak, and unusual hazards in ordinary occupancies. This approach helps crews practice recognition, isolation, product identification, protective action decisions, resource determination, and command transfer across a range of hazmat problems.

Explore additional scenarios in the 10-Minute Training Library or visit the 10-Minute Training Overview for guidance on using tactical decision games during company and command officer training.