This is one of Ventura Counties Hazardous Materials units. The device next to the vehicle is a portable shower used to decontaminate people who have been in contact with a hazardous material. It is feed by a single hose line and has nozzles that can wash a person from all sides at once.

The fire fighter I spoke with said that when he first came to the HazMat unit he never thought they would have to respond to terrorist threats. After the anthrax letter attacks in 2001, Ventura County Fire Department responded to thousands of calls of suspected substances.

The VCFD HazMat Fire Fighter was kind enough to demonstrate the radios they use.

HazMat vehicles are equipped with enough toys to make even the most inept tool man grunt with glee. One of these tools is an arsenal of handy-talkies.

Since it's difficult to talk on a radio through a chemical protective suit, fire fighters wear their radios on the inside of their suits. To talk on the radio they have one of two ways to press the Push To Talk (PTT) button. One way is to use these microphones that have a VOX function where the radio will transmit when the fire fighter talks. The other, more popular, way to communicate is by wearing a large PTT button that can be clipped on under the protective suit so all the fire fighter has to do in order to talk on the radio is press this large button.

These radios can be handed out on scene to public safety personnel from other agencies so they can all communicate with each other on the same radio system.

These radios are programmed with the first three zones of the Ventura County Fire Department radio channel line up.

• FON Ventura County Fire Radio
  

This HazMat Fire Fighter is explaining that they have rolls of tape made of different material because some chemicals react adversely to some types of tape.

I don't think he got the joke when I asked if they carry sheets of plastic and tin foil hats.

This is one of two Ventura County Urban Search & Rescue truck 'n trailers.