Lt. Rick Zakaras emerges from the Naperville Fire Department`s $200,000 mobile hazardous materials command center, points to the 28-foot, 16,000-pound trailer attached to a pickup truck and says: ”We`re very fortunate. Not a lot of towns have this.
”But there are (dangerous) possibilities, and you have to be prepared.” Zakaras, 31, supervisor of the department`s hazardous materials team, has seen spills from 2,000-gallon acid tanks and a tank of toxic herbicides melt during a fire. And with booming Naperville located in the midst of the Chicago area`s ”high-tech corridor,” new companies dealing with exotic chemicals are arriving every year.
In addition, major truck thoroughfares and two rail lines in or near Naperville provide the potential for hazardous spills.
Still, one of Zakaras` greatest concerns is what he may find in a typical home.
”Everyone takes care of the big spill,” Zakaras says. ”But when people get hurt, it`s when they go unsuspecting into someone`s garage. My greatest fear is the unexpected-not going into a company when I know what`s there, but going into a house when I don`t know what has been stored there.”
Herbicides, pesticides and fuel have been stored in garages and basements, Zakaras says. Firefighters have found black powder, used for reloading shotgun shells, left in a bedroom. Fireworks have been illegally stored in homes, and farmers have had dynamite, used for blowing away tree stumps, near their homes. All of them, needless to say, can be extremely dangerous during a fire.
”There`s a lot of hazardous material out there,” Zakaras says.
One of his main functions is to ensure that firefighters are well trained in spotting and dealing with potentially hazardous material, commonly called
”haz mat” by firefighters.
”It`s a challenge, probably the most challenging of anything I do,”
says Zakaras, who, as a company officer at Fire Station 4 also pulls duty on the fire engine and ambulance. ”It (hazardous material) is the most feared
(of firefighting dangers) and the least understood.
”It`s something that the (firefighters) themselves are leery of. I`m trying to make it less of a mystery. The more they understand about something, the less afraid they`ll be of it hurting them.”
A key component of the training program has been to ensure that every vehicle responding to a fire or other emergency has at least one firefighter trained as a ”first responder,” capable of dealing with a hazardous spill until the haz mat team arrives, Zakaras says.
Vehicles also carry equipment necessary for initial containment of the spill and to keep it from leaking into storm sewers.
”About 90 percent of the hazardous materials are flammable and combustible materials,” Zakaras says. ”It`s gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene. And (fuel) is about the only hazardous material that we allow people to dispense without any training.”
If there is a major spill or other incident, the hazardous materials command center may be dispatched to the scene. Zakaras says, however, that he tries to minimize use of the command center so as not to cause undue alarm among residents.
”We try to keep it low-key. We try not to blow things out of proportion. ”But there are unknown spills, and we need a command center there,”
says Zakaras, who estimates the vehicle is dispatched an average of twice a month.
The command center is outfitted with dozens of chemical reference books, equipment and chemicals that absorb or neutralize hazardous material, fully sealed protective suits, meters to test chemicals and gases, and tools of all sorts including hammers and other items that don`t give off sparks when they are used.
”We try to get tools to fit every nut and screw we might find,” Zakaras says.
Zakaras, who has been with the Naperville Fire Department 11 years, has been assigned to the haz mat team since 1983, when Lt. Terry Jelinek, the original supervisor, urged him to join. Zakaras became supervisor about six months ago.
Zakaras received hazardous materials training at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md., in 1985, and he receives at least 40 hours training a year to keep up with the latest developments. He received a bachelor`s degree in fire science administration from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, in 1984 and is working toward a master`s degree in industrial safety at Northern Illinois University, De Kalb. Zakaras and his wife, Cathy, have two children, Michael, 5, and Christine, 4.
”I have had even more concern for the environment since we had the kids,” Zakaras says. ”I also have concern for the future and what will be around.
Naperville passed a ”spiller pays” ordinance last year that requires the party responsible for a spill to repay the fire department for any material used to contain a spill and for any overtime costs for the personnel responding, he says.
”We identify and contain spills and protect people, ” he adds. We don`t get into cleanup-that`s the responsibility of the spiller.”
Zakaras has instituted a ”zero-tolerance” policy that requires all spills to be reported, he says. State and federal guidelines only require reports on spills of 25 gallons or more, he says, but he began the more stringent policy to ensure that thorough records are kept on all occurrences. ”Lt. Zakaras is doing an excellent job with that program,” says Capt. Bruce Moeller, the department`s emergency medical services coordinator and public information officer. ”Hazardous material has become much more visible in the past few years, with the federal government involvement and legislation and people becoming more concerned with the environment and what we`re going to do with toxic waste. That responsibility, for the most part, falls on fire departments.”
With rapid growth, ”we encounter more and more problems, and we have to have answers to address those problems as they are uncovered or as they develop. It requires a lot of preliminary work. There`s a tremendous amount planning, education, training and resources that have to be developed.
”That`s where Rick really has been instrumental. He`s been able to pull together the training and the resources and the people.
”The team has been in existence for a while, but it really took off in the last couple of years,” Moeller adds.
So has the Naperville Fire Department. In a community that has mushroomed to more than 90,000 residents from about 42,000 in 1980 and is projected to grow by another 40,000 to 50,000 in 20 years, the department also has expanded.
Under the direction of Chief Alan Rohlff, who came to the department in 1984 from Hartford, Conn., it has grown to 93 full-time firefighters, 64 of whom are paramedics. All firefighters that are hired now must also be paramedics.
Moeller says the department recently phased out its paid-on-call part-timers and shifted to a complete full-time force.
”When I came on at the end of `82 was the first time the balance started shifting from a primarily paid-on-call department to a fully paid department,” Moeller says. ”We only had 35 full time and about 45 paid on call at that time.
”Twenty years down the road we`ll be pushing close to 200”
firefighters.
Because Naperville is growing rapidly, the department is able to concentrate heavily on fire prevention, Moeller says.
”In our community, we have a slightly greater focus on fire prevention, on codes.
”We also have a tendency to get into interior firefighting a little more aggressively (than in older communities) because we have new structures. Old structures are a danger to firemen.”
And because buildings in Naperville are farther apart than in older communities, firefighters can spend more time fighting the fire than worrying about the fire spreading to nearby structures, he adds.
The fire department also is expanding: New stations were built in early 1987 and early 1988, for a total of five.
Now, Moeller says, the city plans to split the downtown Station 1 into two new stations, one on Chicago Avenue east of downtown and another on Aurora Avenue in the complex where the new police building is located. The Aurora Avenue station will be the fire department`s administrative headquarters. Both stations are expected to be completed in 1991.
Also to help meet growing demands on the department, Moeller says it recently instituted a Medical Engine Program for the two stations that don`t have ambulances assigned to them. Those engines carry the same basic life-saving equipment and drugs as ambulances and are manned by paramedic-firefighters.
