For the third time in four years the hazardous materials response team from Midwest City, Oklahoma, is the overall winner of the Los Alamos National Laboratory HAZMAT Challenge.
The Midwest City team placed second in last year's competition and captured first place in both 2004 and 2003. Midwest City is located just east of Oklahoma City.
The trophy for second place was earned by the Las Cruces, New Mexico, Fire Department, which placed first last year. Third place for 2006 goes to the Norman, Oklahoma, Fire Department. The award for sportsmanship goes to the team from the Moore, Oklahoma, Fire Department.
Fourth, fifth and sixth places go to Farmington, New Mexico, Fire Department, Los Alamos, New Mexico, Fire Department, and Los Alamos National Laboratory Hazardous Materials Response.
In 1996, the Laboratory's Hazardous Materials Response team began the challenge as a way to practice emergency-response skills. The competition has expanded and now offers an intensive training opportunity for other New Mexico and regional hazardous materials response teams.
All teams benefit in the four-day training. In case of an actual event, teams will be familiar with required skills and a practiced, coordinated response.
This year's technical events included simulated responses to a biological incident and a chemical-identification drug-enforcement exercise. Other hazardous materials response scenarios in this year's competition involved complex valve leaks, a confined space rescue, a compressed liquefied gas leak, an overturned gasoline tanker and railcar, and a hazardous material "gusher" that requires constructing a dam and a dike.
"The Laboratory is pleased to collaborate with our regional emergency responders and provide invaluable training that will support our readiness to protect the public in an emergency," said Beverly Ramsey, division leader for Emergency Response. "Sharing cutting-edge technologies and personal-protection and decontamination techniques with our colleagues and working as teams will ensure a safer work environment and practiced relationships, which will pay off both during both exercises and emergencies."
The events began with safety briefings, training and vendor demonstrations on Tuesday and ended today with less rigorous contests, including the ever-popular obstacle course, in which teams wearing full hazardous materials protective gear race the clock through a creative and fun-filled course.
Sixteen teams from New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma represented responders including the New Mexico National Guard 64th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team; New Mexico and Arizona teams from Intel Corp.; New Mexico State Police; LANL HAZMAT, and fire departments from the communities of Española, Santa Fe, Gallup, Farmington, Las Cruces, Los Alamos, and Gallup. The State of New Mexico Department of Public Safety Office of Emergency Management with funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation assisted in the planning and staging of the events. Personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency Region VI, served as controllers and evaluators.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and the Washington Division of URS for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.