Allegheny County Hazmat Team Station 450 is a component of the state-certified hazardous materials response team for Allegheny County. It can be requested to respond to an incident by local emergency responders through the Allegheny County 911 center.

The hazmat team will respond to an incident to support local operations. It will only mitigate and stabilize the problem and will not perform clean up. Clean up of the incident is the responsibility of the party that caused the hazardous materials incident.

When the hazmat team arrives, the incident commander should expect a member of the team to join them in the command post as a hazmat branch manager that will provide insight and support for mitigating the incident. The branch manager will help create an incident action plan to stabilize the incident.

Additionally, the hazmat team will have an assistant safety officer that will work with the incident safety officer on providing incident safety with a focus on hazmat operations.

It is important to remember that the local incident commander will retain all authority and over the incident.

The hazmat team expects the local jurisdiction to provide as much information known about the facility, the release, the nearby exposures, and the hazardous material(s) involved to help account of all risks and hazards present.

The incident commander needs to identify a safe staging area near the entry to the incident for hazmat personnel staging. Many responses require hazmat personnel to walk into the incident from staging utilizing specialized personal protective equipment and carrying special equipment. This area should be as level as possible.

The team also expects a fully licensed, staffed, and equipped ALS ambulance present for responder safety. The team has medically trained personnel on the response that can give advice and support to local emergency medical services providers.

The incident commander may be asked to provide personnel to support hazmat team operations. These personnel will work under direction and guidance of hazmat team personnel to accomplish tasks. Some tasks that may be supported include decontamination, logistics and incident reconnaissance. Personnel that are entering into an incident must be trained to the hazardous materials operations level.