Pubdate: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 Source: Recorder & Times, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2009 Recorder and Times Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/kR0Q3nSw Website: http://www.recorder.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2216 Author: Deanna Clark DRUG LABS POSE BIG RISK FOR EMERGENCY RESPONDERS It's an emergency and firefighters race to the scene of a house fire or a car crash expecting to do the jobs they are trained to do - put out fires and help save lives. The reality of what they will find today, however, is much more sinister. That structure fire, or even the crashed car, could be putting firefighters as the first responders in the midst of deadly, clandestine drug labs or boxed labs, the transportable form turning up in vehicle trunks and pickups in Ontario. "It could be a death trap and you won't even know it," OPP Detective Constable Dave Glass told close to 100 firefighters from 13 of 15 Leeds and Grenville departments here Monday night. "They can kill you immediately or years later." Glass, of the Drug Enforcement Section (Kingston Unit) Investigation Bureau, told firefighters they may think they are going to a routine call. And it may look routine once they arrive. A simple shed fire, a person who has collapsed. The firefighter may be thinking heart attack and be focused on the victim when the downed man may have been overcome with noxious fumes from a meth lab. "It's something I can't stress enough," Glass said while pointing to the word "routine" and indicating it could be the call that could kill or debilitate. "Look for indications that you may be in a lab, and as soon as you think you're in a lab, get out." When asked how many labs are out there in the province, Glass said he couldn't even begin to guess. One number he did know, however, was for every unit of a drug made there are six units of toxic sledge left behind. "All you need is water and electricity," Glass said while outlining the basics required for an illegal drug-making operation. Extraction conversion, tableting, synthesis, multiple process and boxed labs are being found in locations throughout Ontario and Canada. A lab could exist in an outbuilding equipped with a generator and located by a stream. It could be that innocuous. Self-storage units are also used and then abandoned, but the toxic sludge is left behind. There are indicators for those who know what to look for, even from a distance. In one slide of his presentation, Glass pointed out the yellowed windows of one apartment in a high rise. For the trained eye, that apartment stands out. The fumes from drug labs can melt the varnish off furniture and can permeate the walls. Some buildings take months to decontaminate or have to be destroyed. Drug labs, as Glass hammered home, can be hidden anywhere and they pose serious risks to firefighters on the front line. "It's not a Toronto problem. It's not an Ottawa problem. It's everywhere," Glass said, noting one case of a crack house in Brockville where five people, all under the age of 20, lived. Of the items confiscated from the scene was a list of the equipment and the ingredients needed, including ammonia, to get a lab up and operating. Some operations will steal anhydrous ammonia, a farm fertilizer. Often they store it in "barbecue" tanks. A clear indicator a propane tank is being used to store something other than propane is how the copper on the top turns blue from the corrosion. "When you see that, you know you have a lab," Glass said. Say you come across a kitchen fire and you see coffee filters with white or pink sledge in them. That is also likely a clandestine drug lab, he said. Glass also outlined what to watch for with both indoor and outdoor grow-ops. "This neck of the woods is famous for dope," Glass said. With indoor marijuana operations, the owners often bypass some of their electricity to avoid detection. Police officers have come across energized ground outside of homes containing grow operations because criminals don't care about building codes. Not only is there the possibility of electrocution, but firefighters entering a house that is a grow operation may have their equipment tangled in haphazardly-installed wires. Glass cited cases of firefighters dying because they could not free themselves. Often there are false walls and other hindrances leaving firefighters vulnerable to entrapment, particularly if the house is ablaze and visibility is nil. There are obvious indicators for labs and some not so obvious, which is why all emergency response personnel need to know a number of signs to look for, Glass said. What is clear is police and fire departments need to work together. Ernie Yakiwchuk, a retired firefighter who is now the fire protection adviser with the Community Safety Enhancement Unit of the Ontario Fire Marshal's office, said marijuana grow operations and clandestine drug labs are not just a police problem. They pose social and economic issues, environmental hazards, fires and explosions that kill and destroy property. "That's why we're involved," said Yakiwchuk. He said a majority of fire departments don't have the full technical training required to respond to fires and noxious fumes caused by drug labs. For example, many don't have portable air-quality testing equipment. While these issues need to be addressed, Yakiwchuk said it is important right now for fire departments to be clear with law enforcement about the training they do or don't have. It could save lives. The session by Glass and Yakiwchuk was hosted by the Elizabethtown-Kitley Fire Department and was co-ordinated by Captain Al Merkley and Fire Chief Jim Donovan. "The interest is there, people are thirsty for it," said Merkley. "I know I've been to three or four grow-ops in the townships in the last five years," added Merkley. He felt firefighters needed to be updated because a session of this kind hasn't been held in this area for at least five years. "We don't get this specific (training in drug operations)," said Donovan of why they asked Glass and Yakiwchuk to speak. "You just don't rush in anymore. It's a new generation and a new world." Both Merkley and Donovan were overwhelmed with the positive response to the session and said area fire departments were well represented. Township of Leeds and Thousand Islands Chief Fire Prevention Officer Wayne Shields attended, despite spending most of the day with a crew fighting grass fires. Between 60 to 75 acres burned due to dry conditions, he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin