Greene County Emergency Response Teams
911 Center
The Greene County 911 Center, located at 25 Volunteer Drive, Cairo, NY 12413, is responsible for handling ALL 911 calls either by hard line or cell. The 911 Center is staffed 24 hours a day by full-time and part-time dispatchers. The 911 center, which is in the same building as the Department of Emergency Services, is supervised by 911 Communication Director James Di Perna.
In addition to the Department of Emergency Services, the 911 Center provides Fire, Police and EMS communication services to 27 fire departments, 14 EMS agencies, 9 police agencies and 2 County specialized teams (HazMat and Fire Investigations). The Greene County 911 Center does all emergency police dispatching for Greene County.
The 911 Center can also communicate with and provide communication services for city, state and federal agencies including NYS Office of Fire Prevention and Control, NYS EMS, NYS ENCON, NYC DEP, NYS Parole, and NYS Park Police. The 911 Center also handles ALL after-hour emergency and non-emergency dispatching for Greene County Department of Social Services, Greene County Mental Health, and Greene County Highway Department.
Mobile Command Unit – 68-1
The mobile command post may be utilized by any emergency service or county agency in Greene County. It may also be sent to areas outside the county with approval from either the GCES Director, the County Administrator or when requested under state or federal disaster declarations. It is designed to be used at large scale and extended incidents. Some examples are mass casualty incidents, hazmat scenes, standby at mass gathering events, large scale and extended fire scenes, extended rescue scenes, extended police operations, etc.
Hazardous Materials Team
The mission of the Greene County Hazardous Materials Team:
Protection of Public Health and Safety
Protection of the Environment
Protection of Property and Assets
Safety of all Emergency Responders
Meetings are the 4th Thursday of each month at 6:30 PM.
GREENE COUNTY HAZMAT APPLICATION HazMat Team Training Request Form
The Greene County Emergency Services Hazmat team is made up of 19 highly trained volunteer firefighters and officers from Fire Departments across Greene County. The team consists of personnel with various levels of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) training through NYS Fire such as, Hazardous Materials Technicians, Hazmat Decontamination Techs, Hazmat First Responder Operations and Scene Support operations personnel. Additional training, to name a few, includes Hazmat Incident Command, Hazmat Incident Safety Officer, Hazmat Operations, ICS 100, 200, 700, 800. The team goes through hundreds of hours of training through the NYS Fire Hazmat programs as well as training from outside experts.
If anyone is interested in joining the team, please complete the Greene County Hazmat Team application. APPLICATION
If any fire department/company would like a demonstration of the Hazmat equipment, training for decontamination, Hazmat full team exercise, or attending fire prevention events.
Please complete the Hazmat team training request form. ReQUEST FORM
HAZMAT TRAINING AUTHORIZATION FORM
If you have any questions you can contact the Deputy HazMat Coordinator Glenn Kazanjian at Gkazanjian@greene911ny.gov
On January 21st 2004 resolution 34-04 was passed by the Greene County Legislators creating the Greene County Decontamination Team. At the time of inception the team was made up of 30 members from 11 fire companies and departments throughout Greene County. Leading the newly formed team was Delbert Higgins of Palenville and Eric Bessenfelder of Coxsackie. Del and Eric spent many hours working to create operating procedures and training the members using state run courses and in-house training. As the decontamination team members progressed in training a decision was made to expand the unit to a full Hazmat team. In 2005, the team was upgraded to a Hazmat level and through DHS and NYS grants the team was allocated $50,000.00 dollars to purchase 60 minute Scott airpacks, Level A response suits, and the teams first gas meter with PID. In February of 2006, Eric Bessenfelder was elected Hazmat Coordinator with Bill Mirando as Assistant Coordinator. Eric and Bill worked closely with Columbia County Hazmat to expand the teams training and build on the mutual aid agreement between the two counties. HazMat Car 1 – Bill Mirando The Hazmat team response vehicles consist of Hazmat 67-2 which is a full size 1995 Pierce Saber Hazmat Truck, Hazmat 67-1 which is a 2025 Chevy 4 door pick up 3500 which is utilized to respond with the Hazmat Decontamination Trailer or NYS DEC Emergency Spill trailer. The team’s detection equipment cache consists of Thermo Scientific FirstDefender RM. This is a laser chemical identification detector which Identifies explosives, toxic industrial chemicals (TICs), chemical warfare agents (CWAs), narcotics, precursors, white powders including known/unknown liquids, solids and mixtures form a vast library of substances, and millions of combinations in under a minute. Additional specialized equipment would be the Ludlum radiation detection equipment, two MSA 4 gas detectors, two MultiRAE Pro detectors with Gamma detection, one MiniRae 3000+ PID, three ToxiRae Pro. The Hazmat team is capable of detecting LEL – Lower Explosive Limit, O2 – Oxygen, SO2 – Sulfur dioxide, CO – Carbon monoxide, H2S – Hydrogen Sulfide, VOC – Volatile organic compounds/PID ppb, GAMMA – Gamma rays, NH3 – Ammonia, NO – Nitric oxide, HCN – Hydrogen cyanide , CL2 – Chlorine, CO2 – Carbon Dioxide, Additional equipment, the team has multiple Sked Sleds, ropes, Scene Lighting with two full-size light towers on 67-2, multiple HEPA Vacuums, Hot water Heaters for DECON, inflatable Decon Shelters, pop ups, hot air heating system blowers, and much more. The team also has a NYS DEC Emergency Spill trailer which is available to respond to spills, it has heavy duty harbor booming system over 300’, a huge supply of other booms and absorbents as well as a large inflatable underflow dam system.
HazMat Car 2 –Dave Cramer
Quarter Master – Brandon Wickson
Secretary – Karl Kilts
Safety Officer – PJ Pugsley
Deputy HazMat Coordinator – Glenn Kazanjian
Fire Investigations Team (GCFIT)
Our mission:
- To provide officials within the fire service and police agencies with professional assistance in determining the cause and origin of fire and/or explosions in Greene County.
- To discourage and deter those persons of society who would willfully set fires for either monetary or personal reasons and to arrest and prosecute those that do.
- To integrate resources of the fire service, the District Attorney’s Office and Police agencies of Greene County and to unite for mutual benefit those officials engaged in the investigations of fires and/or explosions.
- To assist law enforcement agencies and the fire service in furthering fire prevention efforts and the suppression of crime.
To acquire a copy of any report or receive pictures, call the team at 518-622-3548.
The advisory board is comprised of the Greene County Sheriff, Sheriff’s Most Senior Fire Investigator, Chairman of the Greene County Fire Advisory Board, Greene County Fire Coordinator, President of the Greene County Volunteer Fire Chief’s Association, President of the Greene County Volunteer Firemen’s Association, a New York State Police Investigator (who must reside in Greene County), and the President of the Greene County Fire Investigation Team.
Resources:
International Association of Arson Investigators
New York State Fire Investigators Association (Chapter 23 – IAAI)
In 1987, Greene County prepared and implemented a Greene County Arson Task Force to assist with the growing number of suspicious fires that Greene County police agencies were called upon to investigate. In 1992, an advisory board was formed to direct and form the newly created Greene County Fire Investigation Team, known as GCFIT. The GCFIT was formed with the combined assistance of the Greene County Sheriff – John Kiebart, Deputy Raymond Berg, Greene County Fire Coordinator – Ronald Garrison, President of the Greene County Fire Chief’s Association – David Sherman, President of the Greene County Volunteer Fireman’s Association – Jim Minkalis and Chairman of the Fire Advisory Board – Robert Lampman. The GCFIT had the pledged support of all of the fire departments in Greene County. Life Members Honorary Members
Animal Response Team (GCART)
Just as it’s important to prepare our families in case of a disaster or emergency, it’s critical to have plans in place for house pets and other animals as well. In fact, companion pets and other animals often require even more special consideration and assistance. And if you live on a farm, you’ll need to prepare a plan for your livestock as well. GCART volunteers help members of our community with this planning.
Anyone can get qualified to be a GCART volunteer and start helping animals. There is no age or physical requirement.
You can get started by contacting Jamie Hyer Mitchell at Jamiehyer@aim.com.
To become qualified, all you need to do is complete four online training courses and sign the Code of Conduct.
Obtain your FEMA SID at: https://cdp.dhs.gov/femasid/register Required Each course takes between 30 minutes and 1 hour to complete. They are all free, online, and don’t require any previous experience. You only need to take each course once. Optional In addition to the training required courses, CART volunteers can also take advantage of other free training opportunities from FEMA found online. There are also many other online training opportunities that CART volunteers should be aware of, including: FEMA offers several other trainings for animal owners and care providers that will help CART volunteers be ready to assist during disasters. These include: In 2016, the passage of the federal and state Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act required local, state, and federal disaster preparedness plans to address the needs of companion animals to be eligible for federal disaster preparedness funds. By establishing and maintaining an animal response team, Greene County complies with this requirement.
John P. Farrell, Jr., Director
jfarrell@Greene911NY.gov
Dan King, Deputy Director/Emergency Manager
dking@Greene911NY.gov
James Di Perna, 911 Communication Director
jdiperna@Greene911NY.gov