This week on RideAlong: EMT School, Mike, Max, and Jonathan dive into HazMat — hazardous materials, scene safety, and why the best first move is often staying far away from whatever is leaking, burning, spilling, or glowing.

The Medical Term of the Week is zones, covering the hot zone, warm zone, and cold zone, and how those operational areas help protect responders, patients, and everyone else on scene. Then the crew gets into what actually counts as a hazardous materials incident, how EMTs fit into the response, training levels, DOT hazard classes, placards, the NFPA 704 diamond, decontamination, and the importance of identifying substances from a safe distance.

For Tools of the Trade, Max walks through the Emergency Response Guidebook, or ERG, and why it is one of the key references for HazMat awareness. The episode wraps up with H ...