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The decontamination trailers were purchased with federal dollars and are owned by local fire departments across the state.  They cost about $77,000 a piece.  

Nineteen trailers are in service, stationed in towns like Thief River Falls, Brainerd,  Willmar, Mankato, Rochester as well as several in the Twin Cities region.  

Last summer several of the 20 foot long units were pressed into service when flooding pushed thousands of people from their southeast Minnesota homes.    The trailers gave them a place for a hot shower while they worked to clean up their properties.  

The Metropolitan Airports Commission sent its decontamination trailer to the town of Rushford.  MAC Fire Chief David Burke says everything went fine until the trailer's mission was completed and it was time to return the unit to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.  

"They were northbound on 52 and they came up over that hill and right there is where the trailer started weaving and going out of control,"  says Burke.  "Crews worked to gain control of it and really couldn't.   And by the time they got the tow vehicle stopped the trailer had turned over on its side."

They trailers are heavy, they weigh about 14,000 pounds apiece.   Burke says the overturned unit eventually was placed on a lowboy trailer and removed from the accident scene.   

Other fire departments around the state have also reported weaving and swaying problems with the trailer.  The Anoka-Champlain Fire Department encountered a different problem when it sent its decontamination trailer to the flood zone last August.   Fire Chief Charlie Thompson says the incident occurred on the way to Rushford.

"We were bringing it down there and about halfway down there the crew was going across a bridge and they hit a little dip on the bridge,"  says Thompson.  "And as they came across the little bump the trailer came totally off the hitch in the back."

Safety chains kept the trailer secured to the truck.  Thompson says the crew pulled over and used a jack to re-hitch the trailer.  They drove slower and made it to Rushford.  When their job was done, the decontamination unit was trucked home on a flatbed trailer.   

David Berrisford is Minnesota's Homeland Security Branch Director.  He's looking into the decontamination trailer problems.  He says his office oversaw the specifications and bid process for the units.   Berrisford says for right now he's recommending the trailers not be moved.  

"Our key focus is to the first responders that when they utilize an asset like this that we can be certain that it's safe on the road,"  says Berrisford.

The federal dollars which paid for the decontamination trailers became available following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  The trailers were seen as a part of the response network that might be needed if an attack occurs in this region.  

The trailers were built by a Texas company, Advanced Containment Systems.  The company has not responded to an interview request.  

David Berrisford says the company will provide the state with information about the trailers.  He says the state will then decide whether it's safe to put the decontamination units back on the road or whether the trailers need repair or other modifications.

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Last September an emergency mobile showering unit known as a decontamination trailer overturned on a highway south of the Twin Cities.
Now state officials are trying to determine whether the 19 trailers stationed around the state are safe.

Minnesota's decontamination trailers may be unroadworthy

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