Design. Engineering. Technology. Manufacturing. These are a few of the departments you likely think of when you think of a car company. When it comes to Toyota, you can another fire department to the list as well.
Toyota Fire and Rescue Brigade
Toyota's fire and rescue team is officially called the Toyota Fire and Rescue Brigade. There's one at each of Toyota's North American manufacturing plants. The units are fully staffed, capable, ready and willing to take on any emergency that may arise. They operate just like a fire station.
“We have a full-time fire brigade and are authorized to have 18 firefighters,” says KB Hallmark, Assistant Chief of Fire and Rescue at Toyota Texas. “Our staff works a 48 hours on/96 hours off schedule — common with municipal fire departments in the area.”
He adds, “Our staff members are required to have professional certifications through the Texas Commission on Fire Protection and the Department of State Health Services and receive additional training specific to their duties.”
Credit: Toyota.
The Toyota Fire Brigade on each Toyota campus is ready to spring into action and help out with emergency situations.
Hallmark says, “We’re here and we’re here to help. Our people are trained to the same standards as the fire department just outside our Toyota Texas property, but we are here to serve just the Toyota campus.”
On example is when the Toyota Texas department sprang into action to fight a 1-acre grass fire, preventing what could have caused massive halts and production delays.
“Our C-shift did a great job a few months ago by extinguishing a grass fire that started at our railroad tracks,” says Hallmark. “The rail yard is important to our operations, and the smoke was preventing the rail workers from doing their jobs. Our team arrived and coordinated an attack with the San Antonio Fire Department and put the fire out, with only a minimal amount of downtime.”
Hazardous Materials
Since Toyota manufacturing employees work with potentially hazardous materials and dangerous equipment when they’re welding, cutting, brazing, or working with spark-producing machinery — also referred to as “hot work” — the fire brigade also prioritizes fire prevention and upkeep.
“We conduct hot work training, inspect hot works, conduct shop audits and provide guidance on fire safety and fire code issues,” Hallmark says. “We inspect the facility’s fire suppression and notification systems and schedule for the maintenance and repairs of these items.”
It's also about team members being proactive and reporting issues before they get out of hand.
“It’s our goal to keep incidents small, but this only works if we’re notified,” says Hallmark. “I would much rather help you do your job safely before an incident happens.”
Disaster Prevention
The Brigade also provides disaster prevention information to employees. For example, due to the hot and dry weather in Texas, they teach employees how to properly discard flammable materials by using smoking receptacles to avoid brush fires.
Photo Credit: Toyota.