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Comment by Shawn on July 13, 2011 at 1:30pm

For those of you living in or around York County in the state of Pennsylvania, the York County Hazardous Materials Response team is desperately in need of new members.

The team is going through a dire crisis directly related to manpower shortages and may have to disband if it cannot increase it's ranks.

In 2004, the team had 54 members while today it only has 20 members. The team requires at least 10 members per call.

The team is entirely made up of volunteers.

York County HAZMAT is a highly trained and equiped team under the command of the County of York Department of Emergency Services.

If the team's ranks continue to drop in number, the team will be disbanded and a HAZMAT team from a neighboring county will be tasked with handling HAZMAT incidents in York County.

Of course, waiting for a HAZMAT team from another county could allow a toxic substances to spread and endanger property, the environment and lives.

If you live in the area and want to be apart of a HAZMAT team, here is your opportunity.

Those with questions about joining or wanting to offer assistance are encouraged to call Tom Graybill at (717)840-2913.

The following are helpful links to the team's home page and a news article on the situation:

*York County HMRT: www.ycdes.org/index.php/oem/hazmat

*CBS News 21 - York Co. hazmat team needs volunteers: www.whptv.com/news/local/story/York-Co-hazmat-team-needs-volunteers...

Comment by Hugh on January 13, 2009 at 9:33am

Thanks for adding me Brother.Hughie 57 House

Comment by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on July 13, 2008 at 7:31am

Nice topic to share information. Santa Barbara, where I work, has been dealing with a fairly large fire this past week. Thousands of acres, firefighters and money being put into this incident. Lots of potential for loss but the fire is pretty much a dead soldier now. What was interesting was the big deal that was made out of still going forward with the July 4th fireworks show at the harbor. Many folks wrote the newspaper wondering why such a thing could have been allowed to go on considering that so many people had been evacuated and were forced to seek refuge in shelters or at friends homes. The mayor was found to be insensitive to the needs of her constituents. What was interesting was how the mayor quoted the police and fire chief supporting going on with the show. During disasters, public service employees have to be really careful what they support and say. It seems to always come back and bite you if you didn't think things out really well. The governor of California (Arnold) stated that fire season in California is now year round. And our worst fire season hasn't even really started yet. This should be an interesting year for all of us. Stay safe and thanks for putting the site together.