Boardman students undergo HazMat training

BOARDMAN

Boardman firefighter Jessica Kollmorgan’s mission was to provide the intricate details of pieces of a PVC pipe puzzle to her partner Nate Miller while dressed in full hazardous-materials gear.

“If they don’t get the job completed, then the next team has to come in and do it,” said David Ware, hazardous-materials instructor from Cleveland State University and an Akron firefighter.

With frustration, Miller tried his best to follow his partner’s radio instructions while bearing the 30-pound air tank and other gear, but in the end they had to move on to the next phase of their instruction.

Two teachers from Cleveland State University came to the Boardman Fire Department this week to teach 10 Boardman students and other departments how to work in Haz-Mat calls.

The department received a grant from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to have four different classes including, confined space awareness, confined space rescue, Haz-Mat training and alternative fuel vehicles. The department had the confined space classes in January.

“We are running into more and more Haz-Mat [calls],” Fire Chief George Brown said.

Some of those calls include fuel spills, hospital calls and methamphetamine labs.

Read more about the training in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.