Title
Thomas Yatabe Award for 2005 from the State Emergency Response
Commission (NB)
Recognition for Firefighter Daniel E. Smith receiving the Thomas Yatabe Certificate of Outstanding Achievement, presented by the State Emergency Response Commission for Hazardous Materials on October 21, 2005.
Explanation
On October 21, 2005 the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) for Hazardous Materials awarded Firefighter Daniel E. Smith the Thomas Yatabe Certificate of Outstanding Achievement for Region III of the State of Florida's Local Emergency Planning Council. Firefighter Smith received the award at the SERC meeting on January 6th in Sarasota, Florida. Firefighter Smith earned this award through his service as Gainesville Fire Rescue's Acting Hazmat Program Assistant. In this capacity, Firefighter Smith has served as the lead instructor and facilitator for the Local Emergency Planning Council's Boot Camp Educational sessions. In July 1999, the City Commission approved the Interlocal Agreement for the North Central Florida Regional Hazardous Materials Response Team which serves an 11-county area. Since its inception, the team has been awarded Emergency Management Preparedness and Assistance Competitive Grants from the State of Florida, Division of Emergency Management. These grants require the regional delivery of hazardous materials incident response training, including awareness, operations, medical protocols, atmospheric monitoring, sampling and identification, and weather station monitoring. Gainesville Fire Rescue sought an employee who would be willing and able to meet the stringent demands of creating and maintaining the training schedule necessary to ensure that hazmat competencies were met by the regional team members. Due to the increasingly complex field of hazardous materials mitigation, the training for these team members must be provided on a consistent and recurring basis. Firefighter Smith accepted this enormous responsibility an...
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