There are three levels of hazardous materials incident classification. The basis used to establish the concept of classifying hazardous materials incidents into levels are:

*Level of technical expertise required to abate the incident.
*Extent of Local, State, and Federal Government, and Private Industry involvement required to assist in abating the hazard.
*Extent of evacuation of civilians
*Extent of injuries and/or deaths related to the hazardous materials incident.
*Extent and involvement of decontamination procedures.

Spills, leaks, ruptures, and/or fires involving hazardous materials which can be contained, extinguished, and/or abated utilizing equipment, supplies, and resources immediately available to the fire responders of the fire department; and

The incident can properly be handled by fire department personnel whose qualifications are limited to and do not exceed the scope of training as specified by NFPA 472, First Responder Operations.

Hazardous materials incidents which do not require the evacuation of civilians beyond the incident scene isolation.

Level II Incidents

Any Fire Department Officer can upgrade a Level I incident to a Level II incident.

A hazardous material incident which can only be identified, tested, sampled, contained, extinguished, and/or abated utilizing the expertise and resources of the Tupelo Fire Department Special Operations Team; a hazardous materials incident which requires the use of any kind of specialized protective gear, tools, equipment or knowledge beyond the normal scope of a first responder; and/or

Hazardous materials incident which requires the evacuation of civilians; and/or

Fires involving hazardous materials that are permitted to burn for a controlled period of time, or are allowed to consume themselves; and/or

The incident can only be properly handled by fire department personnel whose qualifications meet or exceed the scope of training as specified in NFPA 742, Hazardous Materials Technician.

Level III Incident

Any Fire Department Officer can upgrade a Level I or Level II incident to a Level III incident.

Actual or threat of spills, leaks, or ruptures which can or must be contained and/or abated by utilizing the highly specialized equipment and supplies available to environmental and industrial response personnel. Such equipment, techniques, and qualified personnel are in excess of or are in addition to those available from the on-scene hazardous materials response team; and/or

Fires involving hazardous materials that are allowed to burn due to the ineffectiveness or dangers of the use of any kind of extinguishing agent, or the unavailability of the proper extinguishing agent; and/or there is a real threat of large container failure; and/or an explosion, detonation, BLEVE or container failure has already occurred; and/or

Hazardous materials incident which require evacuation of civilians from a large geographical area, or evacuation has extended across jurisdictional boundaries; and/or there are serious civilian injuries and/or deaths as a result of the hazardous materials incident; and/or

Hazardous materials incidents which require the decontamination of equipment, personnel, or civilians.

The hazardous materials incident has become one of a multi-agency involvement.

The following table is presented for guidance in determining the levels. The highest for any single condition will determine the incident level.
 

Condition	Level I Incident	Level II Incident	Level III Incident
Product	No DOT placard required   ORM, A,B,C,D   Can require up to Full Structural Firefighting PPE	DOT placard PCB's/No Fire   EPA regulated Waste   Any Unidentified Substance   Can require up to Level B Chemical PPE and/or Specialized High Temperature PPE	Poison A, Explosive 1.1, 1.2, 1.3   Organic Peroxides   Flammable Solids (water reactive) Chlorine,Flourine, Anhydrous Ammonia Radioactives, PCB's On Fire   Requires up to Level A Chemical PPE or both Level A and Specialized High Temperature PPE
NFPA #704	0 or 1 all categories	2 for any category	3 or 4 for any category including special hazards
Container Size*	Small	Medium	Large
Container Integrity	Stressed or Minor Damaged	Damaged but serviceable for handling or transfer of product	Damaged, Catastrophic rupter possible
Leak Severity	No or small release contained or confined with available resources	Not controllable without special resources or "Reportable Quantities"	May not be controllable even with special resources
Life Safety	No Life Hazard	Local Area, Limited Evacuation	Large Area, Mass Evacuation
Impact on Environment	Minimal	Moderate	Severe

*Small= pail, drum, package bag.
Medium= one ton containers, portable containers, nurse tanks, multiple packages.
Large=tank cars/trucks, stationary tanks, hopper cars, multiple medium containers.