Hazmat Fusion Center

The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) have teamed to bring hazardous material (HazMat) first responders a new tool.  Known as the National Hazardous Materials Fusion Center (NHMFC); this new web-based tool provides responders, throughout the U.S., an information sharing capability previously not available to first responders.
The NHMFC Website (www.hazmatfc.com) was demonstrated during the EPA, Region 6, HotZone Conference in Houston, Texas. The internet portal not only provides responders an opportunity to report information on HazMat incidents, but also provides a number of easy to use resources. 
The fusion center provides one-stop shopping for hazmat-response information; including, training packages, reports, incident-based case studies, statistics, trends, alerts, recommendations, and peer-to-peer networking. The NHMFC serves as a repository of hazardous material incidents reports collected from actual incidents.  Regional incident survey teams (RIST) established in each of the five PHMSA regions will collect incident information on response techniques, lessons learned, and best practices. Members of these teams are local first responders who have been trained to collect lessons learned and provide an analysis of the incident.  Teams are only dispatched at the request of the jurisdiction responding to the incident.
In addition to providing lessons learned, the NHMFC will also maintain points of contact for trained hazardous material teams, providing information on location, capabilities, and equipment. This information should be especially valuable for those jurisdictions not having a trained hazardous materials response team.
Best of all, the Web-based tool it is free. Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC) will find the Fusion Center a useful tool in providing and sharing lessons learned with local fire departments. While the NHMFC is free, users must register either as an individual or agency user to allow access to secure portions of the Website.