NC BLET 2025 - Explosives and Hazardous Material Emergencies

Define hazardous material according to the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA)

Any substance or material that possesses an unreasonable risk to health, safety, property, and/or the environment if it is not properly controlled during handling, storage, manufacture, processing, packaging, use, disposal, or transportation.

Routes of exposure

1) Inhalation

2) Ingestion

3) Absorption

4) Injection

How to safely respond to a hazardous material emergency and correctly identify materials using the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG)

STEP 1: Detect the presence of hazardous materials.

STEP 2: Isolate the scene to prevent exposure.

STEP 3: Identify the hazardous material.

STEP 4: Request additional resources.

How to safely respond to a hazardous material emergency and correctly identify materials using the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) -

STEP 1: Detect the presence of hazardous materials

a) Upon arrival, conduct an uphill, upwind, upstream initial windshield size up of the scene while still inside the patrol car.

(1) Do not walk into or touch any spilled liquids, airborne mists or condensed solid chemical deposits

(2) Avoid contacting hazardous materials, including contaminated victims

(3) Follow all protocols and procedures for emergency evacuation if you are inadvertently exposed to chemical, biological, or radiological materials

(4) Try not to inhale gases, fumes, and smoke. While full protective clothing, including self-contained breathing apparatus, should be used, you should at least cover your mouth with a cloth or mask when leaving the area if caught unaware.

(5) Apply basic first-aid procedures, including preliminary decon methods and antidotes, to neutralize the effects of common hazardous materials when safe to do so.

b) Be aware of local facilities and businesses that keep hazardous materials on sight. This includes sales, distribution, storage, and disposal.

The Hazardous Chemical Right to Know Act (NC Department of Labor) requires all employers to compile and annually update a hazardous substance list containing the information on each chemical stored in the facility in quantities of 55 gallons or 500 pounds, whichever greater.

How to safely respond to a hazardous material emergency and correctly identify materials using the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) -

STEP 1: Detect the presence of hazardous materials (Continued)

c) Approach Considerations

(1) Stay upwind, uphill and/or upstream

(2) Use your senses

- Visual and auditory senses are the preferred method of detection. Smell, touch, and taste are urgent indicators of being in a danger zone that may occur with unseen or unheard dangers.

(a) Recognize the following four potential pathways that hazardous materials can enter the human body.

(i) Inhalation: Enters by breathing through the nose or mouth.

(ii) Ingestion: Enters through the mouth by means other than simple inhalation.

(iii) Injection: Enters through a puncture of the skin

(iv) Absorption: Enters through the skin or eyes.

(b) Sight: Looking for the following

(i) Mist, colored smoke, or vapor clouds

(ii) Fires, leaking containers, or spilled liquids

(iii) Dead animals or vegetation; A spill or leak may have been ongoing for days or weeks

IV) People who are coughing, vomiting, or have eye irritation (including yourself)

V) Container shapes to include tanker trucks, railcar tanks, and freestanding metal drums or cylinders

(c) Smell

- Never attempt to use the sense of smell to detect a hazardous material. Chemical may be odorless. If you can smell the chemical, you are too close. Some chemicals may cause loss of smell even though the chemical is still present, you may not smell it.

(d) Listen for hissing noises that indicate chemical reactions or burning

(3) Weather conditions

- Wind can have a positive or negative impact. Officers can determine wind direction by holding a four-foot piece of crime scene tape in their hand or tying the tape to a stable vertical object.

- Water from precipitation can cause some hazardous materials to react more violently

How to safely respond to a hazardous material emergency and correctly identify materials using the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) -

STEP 2: Isolate the scene to prevent exposure

a) Establish scene control by isolating the hazardous area

b) Keep all unauthorized people away from the scene. Use barriers to isolate and deny entry. Do not use flares until the material is known and it is safe to do so.

c) Immediately begin moving everyone in the immediate area upwind, uphill, or upstream.

d) Until the exact hazardous material is known, isolate a spill

or leak area for at least 100 meters (330ft) in all directions. If tank, railcar, or tank truck involved in a fire, Isolate for 800 meters (1/2 mile) in all directions.

e) Secure the crime scene

(1) Establish perimeters - Identify and preserve evidence. Better to establish a larger initial isolation zone.

(i) Hot zone (exclusion/isolation zone) - The potentially dangerous area surrounding an incident.

(ii) Warm zone (contamination reduction zone/corridor) - An area adjoining the hot zone and extending into the cold zone. Serves as a buffer between hot and cold zones. Includes control points to the decon corridor for contaminated people, animals, or items exiting hot zone.

(iii) Cold zone (support zone) - Surrounds the warm zone and is used to carry out all logistical support functions of the incident.

2) Identify victims, witnesses and suspects - Document entrance and exit of all individuals leaving the scene. Exclude unauthorized and nonessential personnel.

3) Protect evidence - Items or objects used to build or package WMD, property damage by WMD, surveillance video from business or government building

4) Provide security -

How to safely respond to a hazardous material emergency and correctly identify materials using the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) -

STEP 3: Identify the hazardous material

1) National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 704 Marking System - A diamond or square-on-point shape placard is used to identify "the health (blue left side), flammability (red top), instability (yellow right side), and special hazards (white bottom) presented from short-term, acute exposures that could occur as a result of a fire, spill, or similar emergency." The NFPA label is placed on fixed facilities.

(a) Hazard severity is indicated by a numerical rating that ranges from zero indicating a minimal hazard, to four indicating a severe hazard.

(b) Special hazards:

W with slash - unusual reactivity with water

OX - Oxidizer

SA - Simple asphyxiant gas

COR - Corrosive

2) U.S. DOT Placard System - Regulates the types of labels and placards that must be attached to containers and vehicles that are transporting hazardous materials.

(a) Placards must be diamond-shaped® (10.75" x 10.75") and affixed on bulk shipping containers and transporting motor vehicles. Placards are required on all four sides of the vehicle. Each placard must contain the following: Symbol, descriptive text or UN ID number, class number, background color.

(b) Federal regulation identifies the following classes of hazardous material:

(i) Class 1: Explosives

(ii) Class 2: Gases

(iii) Class 3: Flammable or combustible liquids

(iv) Class 4: Flammable solids, spontaneously combustible, and dangerous when wet.

(v) Class 5: Oxidizing substances and Organic Peroxides

(vi) Class 6: Poisonous and infectious substances

(vii) Class 7: Radioactive Materials

(viii) Class 8: Corrosive

(ix) Class 9: Miscellaneous Dangerous Goods

(c) United Nations (UN) Identification Numbers: 4-digit number on rectangular orange panel 6.3 inches high and 15.7 inches wide. Diamond-shaped hazard classification system placards.

Correctly identify materials using the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG)

1) Step One (following the flow chart on page one)

(a) If explosive involved, got to appropriate guide

(b) Determine Guide Number by:

- Look up 4-digit ID number on placard, orange panel, or shipping doc in yellow section

- Look up name of material on shipping doc, placard, or package in blue section.

- If ID number or name of material cannot be found, find corresponding placard on page 8-9.

- If railcar or road trailer involved, pages 10-15.

- If no identifying info and material believed to be hazardous, use Guide 111.

2) Step two

- If guide number supplemented with the letter 'P', it indicates the material may undergo violent polymerization if subjected to heat or contamination. (can cause fire or explosion)

- If material is neither highlighted nor on fire, turn to the numbered guide (orange boarded pages)

- If highlighted and not on fire, look for ID number of the material in table 1 of initial isolation and protective action distances and then refer to the appropriate guide number.

- If highlighted and on fire, use orange guide for evacuation distances and then look for ID number and name of material in table 1 of initial isolation and protective action distances for residual material release.

How to safely respond to a hazardous material emergency and correctly identify materials using the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) -

STEP 4: Request additional resources

a) Fire Department (primary responders)

b) Incident command system (ICS) - Helps LE integrate with fire, rescue, and medical

c) National Incident Management System (NIMS)

(1) Be applicable across a full spectrum of potential incidents, hazards, and impacts, regardless of size, location, and complexity

(2) Improve coordination and cooperation between public and private entities in a variety of incident management activities

(3) Provide a common standard for overall incident management

How to respond to a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) event - INDICATORS

1) Categories of WMD Materials (CBRNE) - Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives

2) General indicators of WMD

- Surveillance by terrorists before executing an attack

- Large number of photographs, maps, or sketches of a building or location that could serve as a potential target

- Suspicious neighborhood activity to include rented buildings or apartments that are frequently unoccupied, occupied by residents atypical of the neighborhood, used to store unused material, or occupied by residents who enter and leave at unusual times.

- Vehicles: Illegally parked, use of hazard lights, missing/mismatched/expired license plate, registration sticker, inspection decals, missing/altered VIN, weighted down vehicle, concealed cargo area, tampered with interior, interior/exterior equipped with nonstandard items.

- Approaching anniversary or other dates that could be important to terrorists

- Explosive materials stored at locations where they should not usually be stored

- Chemicals typically used to make explosives

- Devices or items used to disperse chemical or biological agents for entry into the human body. Includes over-the-counter household spray tanks or bottles used to apply pesticides, weed killers, or fertilizers.

How to respond to a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) event

a) Making notification

(1) Essential for an effective response:

- Date and time of notification

- Who received the notification

- Who provided the notification

- Detailed location information

- Type of incident (ex. explosion, incendiary incident, suspected chemical or biological incident)

- Weather information (ex. wind speed, direction, temperature, humidity, precipitation, short-range forecast)

- Victim information (ex. number of victims, number of potential victims, nature/symptoms of injuries)

- Evacuation status (ex. has the facility been evacuated, location of evacuees relative to threat?)

- Vulnerable locations (ex. childcare centers, nursing homes, hospitals, in the vicinity)

b) Isolate and minimize exposure

- Isolate: First priority is to protect yourself and others. Establish isolation zone and move outside it. Alert other in danger area to do the same. Take only action you are equipped and trained to take. Follow recommended evacuation and isolation distances provided in the ERG.

- WMD Hazards (TRACEM): Six types of hazard that can occur from WMD exposure are Thermal, Radiological, Asphyxiation, Chemical, Etiological(biological), and Mechanical (ex. shrapnel from pipe bomb).

How to respond to a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) event (Continued)

c) Minimize Exposure

- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

- Time: if exposed, leave contaminated area ASAP.

- Distance: Stay upwind, uphill, and upstream. Follow recommended initial isolations and evacuation distances provided in the ERG.

- Shielding: Use the following strategies to minimize exposure to WMD hazard.

(1) Remember the routes of exposure for various chemical, biological, and radiological materials.

(2) Use vehicles, building, natural terrain, and existing weather conditions.

(3) Communicate the nature of the incident wind direction and speed, contaminated areas, and best approach to the scene to other first responders.

(4) Park vehicles facing away from ground zero at the incident scene.

(5) Do not walk into or touch any spilled liquids, airborne mists or condensed solid chemical deposits.

(6) Avoid contacting hazardous material, including contaminated victims.

(7) Follow all protocols and procedures for emergency evacuation if you are inadvertently exposed to chemical, biological, or radiological materials.

(8) Try not to inhale gases, fumes, and smoke.

(9) Apply basic first-aid procedures, including preliminary decon methods and antidotes, to neutralize the effects of WMD materials.

d) Secure the scene/perimeter

List four (4) components of an electric IED and provide an example of each: TYPES OF EXPLOSIONS

1) Types of explosions

(a) Mechanical - Violent rupturing of a container due to the buildup of pressure. Requires physical reaction which is neither chemical nor nuclear. Involve a high-pressure gas within a container expanding beyond the limit of a container's tensile strength, resulting in the container bursting open to release the pressure. This release of contents from a container creates a shock wave. If the material which is stored in that container is flammable, a fire will ignite.

(b) Chemical - Creating using high or low explosive materials. Both low and high explosives release energy rapidly, and any differences are indistinguishable to the human eye.

- Low explosives release energy by burning rapidly but slower than the speed of sound. Many low explosives are purchased over the counter without a license (ex. gun powder, fireworks, pyrotechnics)

- High explosives detonate with a chemical reaction that move faster than the speed of sound. High explosives must be purchased with a license and commonly used for demolition, mining, and quarrying (ex. C4, dynamite).

(c) Nuclear - Created from a fission (Atomic bomb) or fusion (Hydrogen bomb) of the nuclear source material.

2) Military ordinance

- Made safe and frequently bought and sold by collectors. They can be converted to contain explosive material again. If encountered, do NOT touch it. Secure and evacuate the area and contact immediate help from trained experts.

3) Homemade and Improvised Explosives may use:

- Acids (car batteries, drain cleaners, industrial cleaners)

- Hydrogen peroxide (Disinfectant, bleach agents, hair products)

- Ammonia Nitrate (fertilizers, cold packs)

- Powered aluminum

- Glycerin (sugar substitute, suppositories, Vaseline)

- Acetone (nail polish remover, paint stripper)

List four (4) components of an electric IED and provide an example of each

1) Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)

(a) Electric IED

(i) P.I.E.S. identifies the four components of a electric IED

- POWER SUPPLY (Most common is a battery. Other devices with their own internal batteries can also be used. Example is mobile phone)

- INITIATOR (The most common is a blasting cap, can be difficult to obtain. Improvised initiators can be easy to make, for example filament from a single Christmas tree lightbulb can generate enough heat to initiate the device)

- EXPLOSIVE (Main ingredient is explosive material inside. Can range from smokeless or black powder to ANFO or C4. The initiator must produce enough energy to set off the charge)

- SWITCH (Switch will fall into 3 categories: [1] Command - Functions on a specific action by the bomber. Can be a transmitter and receiver such as two-way radio, mobile phone, garage door opener or hardwired mechanically to the device such as pulling a string or tripping a wire to initiate detonation. [2] Timed - Can be electronic, mechanical, or chemical. Electronic timer creates physical contact between two parts of the device via an electrical circuit. Mechanical switches include fuses with a specific burn rate. A chemical switch uses a reaction to delay initiation. [3] Victim operated - Initiated unwittingly by the target and may function by tilting, pressure, pull, vibration, or a tension release.

- CONTAINES (Not part of P.I.E.S. A paper envelope can contain all the P.I.E.S. components needed to build an IED)

(b) Mechanical IED

Examples in this category include anything from a simple pipe bomb initiated by a fuse to complicated victim-activated bombs that use springs, mousetraps, clothespins, or other non-electric means to detonate the device. Mechanical movements include striking a primer, starting a match, or mixing chemicals to set off an IED.

Best practices for responding to a bomb threat or suspicious objects, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA): INITIAL RESPONSE

Initial Response

a) Proceed to the location as quickly as is prudent, in accordance with departmental policy and state law.

b) Upon arrival, contact the person in charge of the facility or building (e.g., manager, supervisor). Do not discuss the nature of the response with others.

c) Law enforcement's role is to ONLY serve in an advisory capacity. The person in charge is responsible for making all decisions regarding the safety of property and employees.

Officers may provide the person in charge with a bomb threat checklist.

d) There are three alternatives for the person in charge to consider when faced with a bomb threat: ignore the threat, evacuate immediately, or search and evacuate if warranted.

e) The person in charge should conduct a risk assessment to determine if they should ignore the threat, immediately evacuate, or perform a simultaneous search for the bomb and evacuate.

f) The person in charge is responsible for organizing and conducting all searches and evacuations and otherwise makes the decisions on how to manage the incident. 189 If the person in charge decides to evacuate, officers should recommend that all unauthorized and unnecessary personnel stay a MINIMUM OF 300 FEET from the building or facility.

Best practices for responding to a bomb threat or suspicious objects, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA): RISK ASSESSMENT

a) Low risk

Lacks realism and poses minimal risk to public safety, and the likely motive is to cause disruption.

(1) Threat is vague, indirect, or implausible

(2) Person making the threat is known and has made previous threats

(3) Threat was discovered and not delivered

b) Medium risk

Threat could be carried out, but it is unlikely or unrealistic.

(1) Threat is direct and feasible

(2) Wording in the threat suggests the perpetrator has thought about how to carry out the act

(3) May include indications of a possible place and time

(4) No strong indication the perpetrator has taken preparatory steps, although there may be some indirect reference pointing to that possibility

(5) Indication the perpetrator has details regarding the availability of components needed to construct a bomb

(6) Increased specificity to the threat (e.g., I'm serious!' or 'I really mean this!').

c) High risk

Threat is specific, realistic, and appears to pose an immediate and serious danger to the safety of others.

(1) May include names of possible victims, specific time, and location of a device

(2) Perpetrator provides their identity

(3) Threat suggests concrete steps were taken to carrying out the threat

(4) Perpetrator indicates they have practiced with a weapon or have had the intended victims) under surveillance.

(5) If a bomb threat includes a specific detonation time, all unauthorized personnel should evacuate the area not less than 15 MINUTES before the threatened detonation time.

According to the National Fire Protection (NFPA), list the four (4) step process for deployment of a fire extinguisher, also identified as the P.A.S.S. process - FIRE CLASSES AND SYMBOLS

1) Fire Classes and Symbols

(a) Class A: Extinguishers with a green triangle and the letter

"A" are for ordinary combustibles like wood, cloth, paper, rubber, and many plastics.

(b) Class B: Extinguishers with a red square and the letter "B" are for flammable or combustible liquids and gases which include gasoline, alcohol, oil-based paints, flammable gases, and greases.

(c) Class C: Extinguishers with a blue circle and the letter "C" are for energized electrical equipment, which includes appliances and motors.

(d) Class D: Extinguishers with a yellow star and the letter "D" are for fires involving certain combustible metals, such as magnesium, titanium, zirconium, sodium, and potassium.

(e) Class K: Extinguishers with a black hexagon and the letter "K" are for fires involving cooking oils and commercial cooking equipment.

According to the National Fire Protection (NFPA), list the four (4) step process for deployment of a fire extinguisher, also identified as the P.A.S.S. process

a) Immediately notify the fire department when any fire is discovered. Do not delay notification and never assume a portable extinguisher will be sufficient.

b) Immediately remove people at risk of being burned by fire.

c) Use the correct extinguisher for fire class (i.e., A through K). Using the wrong extinguisher can increase the severity of the fire.

d) The fire must be small and contained.

e) Most portable fire extinguishers have a range of 5-20 feet.

f) Use the P.A.S.S. method.

(1) Pull the pin to break the thin wire or plastic seal

(2) Aim the nozzle at the base of the fire

(3) Squeeze the operating handles or lever to discharge.

(4) Sweep the nozzle horizontally from side to side at the fire's base until it is out.

g) "Since it can take as few as 15 seconds for a 5lb. fire extinguisher to discharge, the short discharge time allows the user to decide if the fire is out or if they must evacuate the building.

h) If the fire reduces in size, move closer to extinguish the fire completely. Some fires that appear to be out may flare back up.

i) After an extinguisher is used, it should be fully recharged or replaced with a new one regardless of the amount of agent used.