- April 23, 2024
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There was a time when Volusia County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Heather Lorimor heard the term "hazmat" and could barely muster up enough energy to express her disinterest.
“I didn’t want anything to do with it," the Ormond Beach resident recalled. "I was like, ‘Meh.’ I was — and most people are when they get into [fire service] — they’re all about fire stuff. They’re all about the EMS part. For me, I really didn’t want anything to do with hazmat."
But yet here she is, 17 years later, leading the county's hazardous materials team, and loving every minute, a passion that was recognized on Wednesday, Jan. 19, when she was named the state's Hazmat Responder of the Year at the Ocean Center during the ninth-annual Hazardous Materials Training Symposium.
And it all started thanks to a professor.
After Lorimor graduated from Seabreeze High School in 1999, her plans were to study architecture. It was something she had pursued in high school, and at the time, it seemed like the right path. Just before she left to study at Florida International University in Miami however, her friend asked her to join her in volunteering with the Flagler County Fire Department.
Since she was leaving town, Lorimor declined, but when she came home for Christmas vacation, one of the volunteer fire chiefs called her and suggested that if she was interested, she could volunteer only when she home from college. This time, Lorimor accepted, and it was a decision that changed everything.
She fell in love with fire service, and with the wildfires of 1998 recent in her memory, she decided to transfer to Daytona State College to pursue a fire science technology degree.
There, she met Marcel Demuynck, her professor for her hazmat courses. He always tried to ingrain a focus on hazardous materials training in his students, and Lorimor was no exception.
“He wasn’t wrong, by any means," Lorimor said. "Hazmat teams throughout the country have just grown everywhere, and people have really have understood and seen the need for it.”
Still, at that time, they were just courses she needed to take to graduate and become a firefighter. She began volunteering with Volusia County Fire Rescue in 2000 and was hired in 2003 after completing her degree. It wasn't very long until the team leaders with the county's hazmat team approached her, having noticed she had taken hazmat courses.
They bugged her about joining their team, but Lorimar was stationed at the fire station at the Daytona Beach International Airport and loved it. She didn't want to leave. She had an inkling that if she became a hazmat tech, they would reassign her to the team's station 15 at the Fire Services Training Center, a tiny station at the time. Lorimor recalls it was "like a closet" with a pair of Murphy beds, a refrigerator and a desk.
But the team leaders were relentless, and she folded. In 2004, Lorimor became a hazmat tech. She was immediately reassigned to Station 15.
Fifteen years later, in 2019, she was chosen to lead the team as a lieutenant.
Once Lorimor went through hazmat tech school, she realized she actually enjoyed it. She liked the technical aspects of the job, and how specialized training was.
Most of what she and her team respond to are fuel spills — jack-knifed or rolled semi-trucks with fuel tanks either on their trailers or in their cabs that need to be off-loaded before the vehicle is towed. The county's hazmat team also responds to propane emergencies and when facilities with extremely hazardous substances experience leaks or valve issues.
“In all honesty, we don’t run hazmat calls all the time, like heavy hazmat calls," Lorimor said. "But when we do, and when they go well, and when I have my team members come up to me and they’re getting out of their suits — they’re drenched in sweat — and they’re like, ‘I love my freaking job,’ that makes me so happy because it’s that excitement that I can see in my team members that motivates me to do my job.”
When a bad hazmat call comes in though, her team does have to be prepared for the worst.
Lorimor was part of the response team for the Bethune Point Wastewater Plant explosion in 2006, where two city of Daytona Beach employees died and another was seriously injured after using a torch to remove a steel roof from above a storage tank containing methanol. The spark from the torch ignited the gas.
“It shot out burning hot methane both up and out of the vent, and then down and out through one of the pipes," Lorimor said.
Lorimor and the county's hazmat team spent a few days on the scene helping the U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigate the incident, monitor the air, and recover one of the bodies.
“Our job is to make sure that every community, every citizen, every visitor that comes to this area and every firefighter in this area knows that we’ve got their back, for whatever they need," she said.
If Lorimor ever found Demuynck again, she would thank him. Working with hazardous materials may not have been what she envisioned herself doing, but it is her calling now.
As vice chair of the Florida Association of Hazardous Materials Responders, she's been involved with the Hazardous Materials Training Symposium since its inception. Anything she can do to help her team or others teams across the state improve their service to the public, she will gladly do. After all, the hazmat tech community is pretty tight-knit.
“If you look at how many firefighters are in the whole country, and you look at how many are hazmat techs, it’s a very small percentage," Lorimor said. "It’s like a whole other family. The support that we all give each other through the different things that I’m involved with, is just phenomenal.”
Being recognized as the state's Hazmat Responder of the Year is something Lorimor didn't expect; she never feels like she's doing enough in her job. There are always more goals to accomplish, and new ideas she wants to see come to fruition. But nevertheless, she is grateful for the award.
"It’s rewarding for me to know that people have seen what I do and appreciate that," she said. "I’m not one that needs awards or 'atta-boys' or things like that. I need to know that we’re valued, and that we’re appreciated and that we’re supported, and that’s what they did for me with that. The people that I love and appreciate in the hazmat world showed me that, and that means the world to me.”
