I would think something you might encounter in your locale. Ventura, maybe a tanker spill or something of that nature. For a EMT class, all your going to be teaching is scene size up, situational awareness and personal safety.
I would stress that based on the dispatch and where your are going you should be suspicious of the possible hazards you might encounter. If you have any doubt, you DO NOT APPROACH. Anything more than that may encourage responders to do something that could endanger them.
When they did it last year it wasnt specifically hazmat, there was a "colorless odorless gas" present and they all forgot to ask if the scene was safe. all they had to do was ask and the instructor would have told them no, wait for hazmat.
How does a normal crew find this "colorless odorless gas"?? I never got that... We had one recently with an industrial Hazmat, Nitrogen gas leak.. That was quite interesting.
Nitrogen in small enclose spaces like labs and production facilities.
Hey, OP, how has this worked out for you?
Another sidebar: CERT is taught if it has a HAZMAT or chemtrec placard, get out and stay out. Wonder how we determine if it has a placard if we can't get close? And every hardware store and many grocery stores have a hazmat placard somewhere.
Story goes, techs at a NASA lab investigating pressurized helmets and different gas mixtures at different pressures were going in with a friend and huffing nitrogen for "nitrogen narcosis", then going back on O2 to "blow it off". One day someonone was found after lunch sitting in the helmet...
