Special Operations Division
Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District

Mission

Providing a hazardous materials response to the citizens of Manatee County by mitigating chemical, biological, and WMD incidents utilizing specialized skills, protecting life and property, the environment and infrastructure.

For emergency situations with suspected hazardous materials: Call 911
If you have a question or inquiry to hazardous materials, please contact:
Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District
1-941-751-7675 or email: mbloski@smfr.com

Protecting Critical Infrastructure

Manatee County contains a large amount of critical infrastructure that is protected by a special operations response from SMFR. Currently, our Special Operations apparatus is housed at SMFR Station 2 at 1922 30th Ave. East. We are a regional special operations provider to the neighboring counties. We provide special operations hazmat response to Manatee County and the cities of Palmetto, Parrish, Bradenton, Bradenton Beach, Anna Maria, Holmes Beach and Longboat Key. Each year the District has also received an increasing number of requests for specialized responses for hazardous materials incidents from county and regional fire districts, law enforcement, and community health care.

Deployable resources include:

Specialized response vehicles

  • Hazmat Squad 328
  • Hazmat Spill Response Trailer
  • Hazmat Mass Decontamination Trailer
  • Hazmat Operations Trailer
  • Two Special AR-AFF Foam Response Trailers

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

  • Structural Firefighting Gear
  • OSHA Chemical Protective Clothing

Field Deployable Operations

  • Hazmat Rehabilitation Trailer
  • 72 Hours Regional Deployment

 

Specialized Hazmat Technical Equipment

  • Unknown (Solid, Liquid, Gas) Substance Identification
  • Radioactive Monitoring
  • Flammable Product Transfer Capability
  • Container Water Injection Capability
  • Leak Sealing and Containment Systems
  • Remote Communications Package

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operations

  • Two UAV Drones Platforms
  • Aerial Leak Monitoring
  • Aerial Thermal Imaging Detection
  • Search and Rescue Capabilities

New Hazmat Squad 328

Expected in service late 2019

Operations

The SMFR Special Operations Team provides mission planning, operational safety, logistics, communications, hazardous materials incident planning, confined space operations, hazardous evidence collections, and fire operational support in support of the Manatee County Fire Chief’s support mission to local Emergency Management.

Deployable capabilities include:

  • Hazmat Response
  • Rapid Intervention Crew Response
  • Unmanned Aerial Monitoring
  • Confined Space Operations
  • Hazardous Evidence Collection
  • Tactical Support Functions to Civil Support Team & Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • CBRNE Response
  • Medical & Health Biological Support

Training

The training program develops and instructs training for personnel to safely operate within complex hazardous materials incidents for the purpose of protecting life safety, property, environment, and critical infrastructure.

The team in composed of 31 members that are Florida State Certified Firefighters, Florida State Certified Emergency Medical Technician or Paramedics, and Florida Hazardous Materials Technicians. Each member receives annual refresher training of 60 hours

Training follows nationally recognized professional standards, which include:

  • Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
  • National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
  • National Incident Management Systems (NIMS)
  • Florida Department of Health
  • Florida State Fire College
  • Florida State Emergency Response Commission
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