In this week's Longmont Public Safety staff feature, the city department highlights Janet Harty who wears many hats. Her main responsibilities are that of a Firefighter Paramedic, a title she’s held for 14 years. Each Longmont station has at least one paramedic on duty to provide advanced life support, according to a Longmont Public Safety Facebook post.
Where are you from, what’s your job, how long have you been employed in the fire service?
I grew up in Golden, Colorado.
Janet is a member of the Hazardous Materials Team (also known as the Haz Mat Team). Under the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act (SARA Title III), emergency services must provide for training, response and mitigation for incidents involving hazardous materials. Janet is one of approximately 18 trained Longmont firefighters, who as a collateral assignment to their regular firefighting duties, make up the Longmont Hazardous Materials Response Team.
In 2016 Longmont regionalized this team along with other local agencies to form the Boulder County Hazardous Materials Response Team (BCHMRT). Longmont Fire’s Hazardous Materials Response team are assigned to Longmont Fire Station 5 in the southwest portion of town and respond to local emergencies within their capacity or respond as part of a larger county team if the incident rises to a higher level.
A minimum of three technician-level trained members are available 24-hours a day, seven days a week. This affords members of the team to respond quickly with all the necessary tools and equipment to handle an event. Hazardous material incidents are classified as low frequency, but are generally high-risk events. The goal of the Haz Mat Team is to supplement local resources to help minimize the negative impact on quality of life and the environment through containment and mitigation.
Janet is also a member of the Fire Education Outreach and a Fire Peer Support Coordinator.
Favorite spot in Longmont?
When I am off duty, Union Reservoir. I like paddle boarding with my dogs out there.
What’s the most common misperception about your job?
I think one misperception about firefighters is that we only respond on certain incidents. Being a firefighter is an “all-hazards” profession. That means that the fire service responds just about anything and everything. This includes building fires, vehicle fires, wildland fires, (really, about anything that burns), traffic accidents, traffic accidents with people trapped in the vehicle(s), emergency medical calls (cardiac arrest, heart attacks, strokes, difficulty breathing, delivering babies, and many others), hazardous materials spills, technical rescues (from trenches, building collapse, or confined spaces), airplane crashes, and many more.
Longmont Fire Department has special teams that train specifically for the above hazards.
What do you wish people knew about your job?
The Longmont community is supportive and appreciative of what we do, and we are extremely thankful for their support. If there was anything I wish they knew, it would be that we’re here for the entire community and we like doing it. We are not just here for emergency situations. We’re always helping and will always be there to pick up slack.
Favorite food of all time?
Mexican food for sure.
