Hazardous Materials Response Team

The City of Pittsburgh Hazardous Materials (HazMat) Response Team was established in 1986 as a joint effort between the Bureau of EMS and the Bureau of Fire. Presently the team is made up of 31 Paramedics, 45 Firefighters and ten Police Officers. Our team is also one of the five teams that make up the Allegheny County Hazardous Materials Response Team and is known to the county as the Gold Team.

The HazMat team is deployed after a hazardous material release is confirmed by the first arriving units to a suspected incident.

HazMat-1 is a custom HazMat truck equipped with an 18-foot walkthrough body. HazMat-1 carries a variety of equipment including chemical suits, gloves, boots, decontamination equipment, self-contained breathing apparatus, and much more. We are constantly in the process of adding any additional equipment necessary to mitigate any potential incident.

Additionally hazmat units operated by the Bureau of Fire include a foam engine, a spill cleanup truck and decontamination vehicles.