FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. -- In vacant bachelors housing off Cooper Avenue, a pair of Fort Meade firefighters entered a room of torn-up walls and red carpeting covered with suspicious white powder.
The firefighers, dressed in bright yellow HAZMAT suits, searched the "hot zone" for an envelope that potentially contained a harmful substance.
The two men remained in the room for about 10 minutes before returning to the "warm zone" just a few yards away, where they were scrubbed down.
Although the events played out as they would in an actual crisis, the scenario was created by Wray Kinsley, assistant fire chief of prevention for the Fort Meade Fire Department, to prepare the firefighters for a HAZMAT situation.
The fire department conducted the HAZMAT drill March 28 to practice the process of investigating a suspicious package. The drill played out around the story that police found the suspicious package and called the fire department to check it out.
"We're putting somebody into a situation with things that can do harm to other people and we're putting our guys in there," Kinsley said. "We have to make sure they're properly prepared and have the best equipment."
Firefighters were joined by the Fort Meade-based 32nd Civil Support Team, which responds to situations that include weapons of mass destruction agents and chemical, biological, explosive, and radiological and nuclear agents. Within three hours, the team can be at any situation in Maryland.
"Our role is to support first responders," said Lt. Col. Kevin Warren, commander of the 32nd CST. "We bring our capabilities as a civil support team to bear any shape or form they need to use us."
The team can support local responders in various ways, including with a portable analytic lab to identify substances, a communication suite to open communication between the military and civilian responders, and an operations cell that can create plume models to show how the agent may affect an area.
Members of the 32nd CTS attended the drill to be more familiar with Fort Meade's first responders.
"We've worked with the Fort Meade Fire Department before," Warren said. "This just keeps up sharp, keeps us ready and helps us develop a better relationship as we approach different kinds of problems down the road."
During the drill, firefighers set up base directly outside the former housing facility, with the staging area just yards away from the room. In a real situation, they would have been set up much further away, said firefighter Jay Jackow.
After dressing in the HAZMAT suits, the entry team entered the room to test the atmosphere and conduct a swipe test on the suspicious package. The team then left for a simulated scrub down before the second team entered the building to see if the swipe test results were "clean" or "dirty."
If the test was dirty, they would re-do the test. If it was clean, the team would package up the envelope and hand it off to a laboratory to identify the substance.
Jackow said that although the firefighters train in the HAZMAT suits and practice picking up pennies on the ground using thick rubber gloves, working in the cumbersome equipment is difficult.
"It's a little challenging," he said. "It's something you've got to get used to, especially with the hands when you have little objects -- you're messing around with Q-tips and little droplets."
Each year, the fire department conducts a full-scale HAZMAT drill at least once. Although this drill was a condensed version, Kinsley said it is important to practice responding to HAZMAT calls to "support the mission of the installation."
The drill was conducted at a slow pace, allowing firefighters to assess the process more effectively.
"[In a real situation] it would go a little faster, they'd be a lot more focused," Kinsley said. "A lot of times on a drill we'll go a little slower because we'll point out and correct any issues that we see. ... If it was a real scenario where we have lives and property involved, we're going to set up our game big time."
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