Fire and police HazMat teams are being tasked to protect more than ever: more venues, more public spaces, more special events, and more everyday โ€œsoft targetsโ€ not built with chemical risk in mind. Fixed sites still matter, but the mission is shifting toward dynamic environmentsโ€”districts, transit hubs, schools, houses of worship, festivals, and open-air spaces where crowds move, conditions change, and decisions must be made fast.

Doug Huffmaster will share lessons from largeโ€‘scale protection in Las Vegas, showing how chemicalโ€‘incident readiness functions as a systemโ€”through district segmentation, unified command, layered deterrence, and pre-scripted actions.

John Johnson will show how to turn operational needs into a repeatable funding approach, building an โ€œapprovableโ€ capability package that links gaps to outcomes and aligns with federal, state, and event-driven funding streams. Attendees will leave with a scalable plan to prepare, train, equip, and fund chemicalโ€‘threat readiness in crowded places without slowing public life or straining small-city resources.

  • Recognize the shift from fixedโ€‘asset protection to dynamicโ€‘environment readiness.
  • Apply a scalable operating model for chemicalโ€‘incident preparedness (roles, ICS integration, triggers, playbooks).
  • Build layered protection using peopleโ€‘flow and venue/district segmentation.
  • Convert capability gaps into fundable requirements with a structured method.
  • Develop a practical funding roadmap aligned with common grant lanes and approval workflows.
  • HazMat teams
  • Emergency management directors
  • Fire service leaders
  • Special event safety/security planners
  • Public safety planners
Public event safety at large scale gatherings

John Johnson JJ headshot

John Johnson is vice president, product marketing and enablement at 908 Devices, where he leads product marketing, market development and commercial enablement for the companyโ€™s handheld mass spectrometry and FTIR product lines. Over a 30-year career in public safety he has launched 17 products in 61 countries and worked with more than 400 public safety organizations. His work has helped accelerate adoption of advanced field technologies for explosives, chemical and narcotics identification.

Doug Huffmaster 908 Devices

LVMPD Police Sergeant Douglas G. Huffmaster (retired) has over 30 years of operational experience in coordinating, performing and commanding multi-agency operations to sample, survey, mitigate and investigate chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) incidents. Doug is a combat veteran who served 11 years in the U.S. Army as a nuclear, biological and chemical non-commissioned officer, serving in the units of the 82nd Airborne Division and the 1st Ranger Battalion. Along with being a HAZMAT technician and a confined space rescue technician he was also a tactical explosive breacher and an FBI certified bomb technician. Doug served in the ARMOR task force as a detective and retired as the sergeant of the team in 2017.