Response Tactics and Strategy
This domain tests whether you can choose an offensive, defensive, or non-intervention mode and then pick tactics that match the product, the resources, and the risk. Expect questions that offer a technically attractive tactic that is wrong for the material.
Strategic modes
- Offensive: stop the release at or near the source; requires trained technicians, appropriate PPE, a backup team, decontamination, and a viable plan.
- Defensive: confine the release and protect exposures without entry.
- Non-intervention: isolate, notify, and evacuate only.
- Priority order is life safety, incident stabilization, then property and environment.
Tactical options
- Confinement: diking, damming, diversion, retention, underflow dams, booms and skimmers on waterways.
- Vapor suppression: Class B foam for flammable liquids; alcohol-resistant foam for polar solvents; water spray to disperse or knock down vapors.
- Source control: valve closure, plugging and patching, overpacking, product transfer, flaring, neutralization, solidification.
- Selection criteria: compatibility with the product, availability, time to implement, environmental impact, and ability to contain runoff.
Decision rules
- Never apply water to water-reactive materials such as oleum or sodium metal.
- Do not extinguish a flammable gas flame unless the supply can be stopped; an unignited release is more dangerous.
- Offensive operations require a written or briefed plan, a backup team in equivalent PPE, and a decontamination corridor before entry.
Worked example
A gasoline tanker rolls over and leaks from the dome. Reasoning: the product is a Class 3 flammable liquid with a low flash point and vapors heavier than air. Without a technician team on scene, the mode is defensive: approach upwind, eliminate ignition sources, dike with soil and absorbent, apply a foam blanket, and protect a nearby storm drain. Notify the water authority. Offensive transfer or overpacking is authorized only after a technician team, backup team, and decon corridor are in place.
Traps
- Plain foam on a polar solvent such as methanol.
- Water on water-reactive materials.
- Extinguishing a gas fire without stopping the leak.
- Committing to offensive operations without a backup team and decon.
- Ignoring runoff and the downstream environmental notification.