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Asbestos and What to Do?
Ok, so you have a fire in a home you put it out great, Its a home you may or may not think there is asbestos, what are your duties? what does your department do in a case like this?, what do you do for decon? do you do decon? what do you do with your PPE? what do you do with your SCBA? do you have any SOP's for dealing with asbestos? what do you do for testing? looking to find some information about what other departments do for when you run into asbestos.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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SO we're a rescue agency, not a fire department, if the upload works, I've attahced our SOP.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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Asbestos can be found in many of our older homes. If it thought to be in a house we're working on, then people not wearing BA are kept out. Anobody working close but outside must be wearing a P2 mask anyway.
The PPE of those who were exposed:
Helmet, gloves, boots - washed
BA - washed
PPC - removed, placed into plastic bags and sent away for testing and then cleaning. State-wide FRS so we don't have to organise that sort of thing locally.
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Permalink Reply by Brando on
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sounds good, is PPC your Personal Protective clothing? (bunkers) do you have two sets of PPC? what do you wash it with? and who is it you send it to for testing? What kind of BA (breathing apparatus) do you have, ei SCOTT, MSA? did you contact the manufacturer about how to clean them? I only ask theses questions because Im unsure of how this all works and would really like to find out as much as I can. Thank you for replying....
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Yes, Personal Protective Clothing is right. We call it PPC or 'turnout gear' here. I have two sets, so unless I go to too many asbestos scares I'm OK :D
We aren't allowed to wash our structural PPC, nor can we take it to the local cleaner. The FRS I'm with (the Country Fire Authority) decided that it has to be sent to a specific commercial cleaning factory - and my last lot didn't get back for nearly five weeks, which is stupid. I don't know who does the testing - we just bag the gear and send it to our regional HQ.
The BA we use is Sabre, made by Tyco, the same company that make Scott. The manner of cleaning when exposed to asbestos is to hose is down. The asbestos will wash off, unlike with clothing where the fabric can capture the fibres. That's what we've been told, and it makes sense to me. Touching the asbestos fibres isn't a problem, it's only the breathing, getting fibres into your lungs.
I don't mind the questions, as long as you remember I'm no expert!
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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on
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We do "as best as we can" to identify asbestos. Gear gets washed if there is any known exposure.
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The BA we use is Sabre, made by Tyco
Distrubuted by Tyco only. Sabre is made by Sabre, who is now tied up with Scott. ;-)
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I said that I wasn't an expert! This time a convused reading of a Wormald site! Sabre come from Scott Health and Safety which is apparently, like Wormald, a Tyco company. (Who really owns who these days?)
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Good point... ;-) How long before we have privately owned emergency services here in Oz???? Food for thought....
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Please, don't.
The things I've been told about some of our private patient transport drivers here... At least with ministerial responsibility we've got some chance!
I know our North American friends are likely to have a different view, but to me, when profit is the only motive? No thanks.
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Going back to to the original topic about asbestos- every single job where I've been the OIC, I've simply refused to do it. No negotiation. No discussion. Every house owner has been told to have emergency repairs done through their insurance company.
THE SOP I linked above says that call must be made to Regional Duty Officer, but to me it's a no-brainer. I'm responsible and will continue to say no. (For the Non-Aussies, remember my agency is not an FD so a burning house is not my issue to deal with. Post fire it may be though).
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