Help us improve our decontamination system

We need your feedback for a review of our decontamination system.

Many of you will have been at incidents with a risk of contamination by a substance – if not chemicals, then maybe sewage contaminated flood waters, products of combustion, or body fluids.

You will know that decontamination – getting clean afterwards – is an important aspect of keeping you safe. This is because decontamination minimises the level of hazardous substances (chemical, biological or radiological) that you are exposed to which can cause injuries and/or longer-term illnesses.

While the Carcinogen Control Project has been updating our post-fire decontamination, the hazmat team is preparing a new project to review and update the way we do deliberate decontamination.

The main equipment we have for deliberate decontamination is our decontamination tents. However, the tents are getting old and are also not always the right tool for the job, especially when we think of our decontamination needs beyond just hazmat. This project aims to bring you a decontamination system that is:

• effective at getting the job done
• able to provide respect and dignity to our people and the public we need to decontaminate
• quick and easy to deploy and refurbish at the end of a job

We completed scoping and preparation work for this project between 2019 and 2021. To progress further with this work the project team now needs more data and statistics to illustrate the challenges that our crews are experiencing when using and maintaining the decon tent and the equipment that goes with it (Hot boxes and Pods).

How you can help

You can help by contributing to this short survey(external link). The survey closes on 20 April.

If you or someone from your crew would like to discuss the project further then contact National Advisor, Decontamination, Brendon Irwin at brendon.irwin@fireandemergency.nz