Assignment:
Fire investigators routinely work in settings that are, without a doubt, hazardous to their health. When investigating a suspected drug laboratory scene, emergency personnel and investigators must consider the potential for the scene to have been either an explosion or explosive combustion. For this assignment, you will create your own safety checklist for investigating a fire scene with suspected drug laboratory indicators. This is not to be a copy or revision of an existing checklist. Your checklist should include measures designed to identify and mitigate safety and security issues unique to a drug laboratory fire/explosion scene.
Your checklist should include measures that address, at a minimum, the areas listed below: steps in determining if hazardous materials are present or were involved in the fire; steps in safely identifying signs, chemicals, and/or hazardous materials that would indicate the fire/explosion scene was possibly a drug laboratory; the differences in safety measures when dealing with explosions and explosive combustion; and any specific training or equipment that may be needed in a drug laboratory fire/explosion scene response and investigation.
In addition to your checklist, you will write a one-page narrative discussing and supporting the need and importance of the steps in your checklist. You may create your checklist in any format you feel would be most useful and presents a professional appearance.
You may consider creating a table in Word or Excel or simply using a bulleted list. Your project should be a minimum of a two pages in length (one page for the checklist and one page for the narrative) in addition to the title and reference pages. You must use a minimum of two sources. All sources used must be properly cited; all references should be formatted in APA style.