James,
That was a great article by “J. Paramedic” on CBRNE events. Not that any of your readers have overly rosy predictions of first responders, but I wanted to add a few points.
All in our agency are issued PPE gear. One suit, one mask, one cartridge. We are better funded. Some agencies issue individual gas masks, but issue PPE gear “per squad” (as in, kept at station, enough for squad on patrol plus some.) The decision was made that it was better to lightly equip everyone rather than heavily equip a select team, especially due to extremely large patrol area and the need to have reduced response time. We do have a better equipped response team for larger, drawn out events, but it is not big. A few of us made it a point to purchase extra canisters, and keep them with us. This came to fruition after breaking the seal on my cartridge for [entering] a meth lab. After being told that a replacement “would come next fiscal year”, I was able to secure one when a fellow officer transferred agencies and turned in his gear. Policy states we “SHALL” carry our PPE gear with us. Only about half actually do.
In the event of a CBRNE event as a individual incident, the immediate response would actually be fairly decent. As the incident wore on, in the 6-8 hour range, initial cartridges would be running out. Hopefully, as a backup team arrived, etc, good scene management would be continued.
My concern is a CBRNE event as part of a larger disaster, like a chemical leak after a natural disaster, when responders are already busy and taxed, and supplies are running low. The response would be less than stellar, to say the least.
My recommendation for people is to have PPE gear on hand, and have spare. Have an extra suit. They rip. Stuff falls on cartridges. Get a Camelbak [hydration pack], and keep it with your PPE gear. Those suits are saunas, and if it is a hot day, you run a serious risk of dehydration. We write the time the suit is sealed on the persons back in large numbers with a black marker, both for reference for cartridge life and dehydration prevention.
If you need to bug out in a CBRNE event, it may be wise to gear up depending on the threat. With certain types of exposure, we are told we will get none of our gear back (guns, etc) once you go through decon. Having two sets of PPE gear, while not a priority for all, would be wise for those that are fine tuning stores, and can spare the expense. Suits are not reusable, and masks are not fun to decon. Having a “throw away” gun (something easy to operate with gloves on….) would not be bad either.
J went over it, but Decontamination is very important. Anyone who has experience of removing bloody rubber gloves understands the idea.
Thanks, and God Bless. – Eli