Last month Southern Manatee Fire Rescues Hazardous Materials Response Team was the recipient of a large cache of equipment from the National Guard’s 48th Civil Support team. The 48th CST is one of two teams in Florida that the military calls upon for incidents involving weapons of mass destruction such as Chemical, Biological, Radiation, Nuclear and Etiological agents. The equipment if purchased new has been estimated to be worth approximately $75,000. The equipment will be put good use to bolster the teams ability decontaminate large amounts of non-ambulatory victims and augment its training equipment. Much of the equipment that was donated was scheduled to be purchased in upcoming years and gives the SMFR Haz Mat Team a leap ahead toward its ultimate goal of becoming a Type I regional response team. Southern Manatee Fire Rescue provides emergency response to Hazardous Materials incidents throughout Manatee County and would like to thank the 48th CST for helping Manatee County responders to become better equipped to respond to these types of incidents.
