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Permalink Reply by ashfire on August 12, 2011 at 12:38pm

I guess Maryland must be different. The fire services have had the trucks, techs and equipment for years. My station had a bomb trailer and was taken to the scene by our brush unit for a while until the vol chief ordered it out of the station. I even went on a bomb call for a found device attached to a bicycle. The device turned out to be a bunch of items stolen by a shoplifter. We have incidents of people bring suspicious items to our station in their cars and we having to find a safe place to put them until atech showed up. We even had a cop bring a brief case to the station and we told him to go to the baseball field across the street and sit there until the bomb truck and the tech showed. I know some places have police teams or have to call the military when someone finds something that doesn't look right.
I remember visiting the Southern Pines FD in North Carolina and someone found what may have been an old artillery casing minus the shell and brought it to the station. The crew said a bomb crew was on the way from Fort Bragg just 30 mins away.

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Permalink Reply by Ken Riddle on August 12, 2011 at 6:50pm

Las Vegas Fire & Rescue has provided bomb squad services to the entire county for the past 40 years. If I remeber there are less than 40 fire department bomb squads nationwide. The FBI Redstone Bomb school can provide you the exact numbers of FD Bomb Squads.

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Permalink Reply by 55 TRUCK on August 13, 2011 at 10:18am

If I'm not mistaken, the Cleveland Ohio fire dept. Does EOD for the city.

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Permalink Reply by Russ on August 16, 2011 at 2:47pm

in my expierence (NE and south US) fire departments doing EOD is a midwest thing. i'm sure they have to attend the HDS school at resdtone or have prior expierence from the military. i had training from those folks and the EOD community (civilian and military) is small but very tight lipped and well trained "meaning"-(we dont talk shop with people we dont know)...terrorism has added a new dynamic to the profession so it makes sense that Maryland went in that direction because of its proximity to the DC area and the military and diplomat presence is an added good reason. if you are thinking about going into EOD, prepare for some seriouse classroom and field work because in EOD you're only allowed "ONE" bad day

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Permalink Reply by ashfire on August 16, 2011 at 9:52pm

I have taken a few awarness classes so has to know its not good to mess with things that don't look right or belong.
I remember not to use radios within a certain distance where a device is located.
I can tell you a story that would make peoples hair stand on end about how educated people would mess with a device before the bomb team showed up to tell them what it was.
That was a day the bomb robot wouldn't get out of the truck and what was done to disrupt the device sent a bomb blanket 100 ft into the air.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on August 17, 2011 at 5:56am

Cincinnati Engine 14 has operated that city's EOD unit for many years.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on August 20, 2011 at 4:41pm

The San Diego Fire Department has a unit that provides bomb squad services in that particular city.

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