Two patients were transported to the hospital Tuesday after a hazardous materials incident in Hernando County, according to Hernando County Fire Rescue. The department's specialized Hazmat 7 team responded to the scene, and images shared by the agency show equipment marked with a Kubota caution label alongside crews from the county's hazmat response team.
Hernando County Fire Rescue announced the incident and patient transports in a post on X, though the department did not specify the exact location of the call, the substance involved, or the patients' conditions, according to Hernando County Fire. The department, which uses the handle hernandocofire, is the official page of Hernando County Fire Rescue.
The involvement of Kubota-branded equipment in the images has raised questions about whether the call originated at a commercial, agricultural, or residential site, but that detail has not been confirmed. It also remains unclear whether the Florida State Warning Point or the National Response Center were notified, as required under Florida's hazardous materials emergency procedures for chemical or gas releases.
2 Patients transported to hospital after Hazmat Incident ☢️🔗 https://t.co/EReixVfLLC pic.twitter.com/XBeJtapt9W
— Hernando County Fire (@HernandoCoFire) August 11, 2026
A Familiar Call for the County's Hazmat Unit
Hernando County Fire Rescue runs its specialized hazmat operations out of Station 7 on Mondon Hill Road in Brooksville, according to the Firefighting Wiki. The unit has stayed busy in recent months, responding to a string of hazardous materials calls across the county.
Less than two weeks earlier, on July 30, the same hazmat team was dispatched to the Walmart Distribution Center on Kettering Road in Brooksville after a hydrogen gas leak from a forklift battery forced a full facility evacuation, a call Hoodline covered in its own report on the evacuation. That incident was mitigated without reported injuries after containment operations by hazmat personnel, per 1st Responder News. On the same day, crews also deployed drone technology on Cemex industrial property along Citrus Way to locate and contain a wreckage fire from an unmanned aerial vehicle crash, as reported by Hernando County News.
Weeks before that, on July 10, Hazmat 7 and the Hernando County Sheriff's Office responded to a suspicious package containing unknown powder on Landover Boulevard in Spring Hill, executing chemical containment and decontamination protocols, according to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. Hoodline previously reported on that call as well.
A Countywide Department Built for Scale
Hernando County Fire Rescue has been led by Public Safety Director and Fire Chief Paul Hasenmeier since October 2022, and the department is headquartered at 15470 Flight Path Drive in Brooksville, according to Hernando County Government. The agency protects more than 212,000 residents across 589 square miles, providing fire suppression, advanced life support EMS, technical rescue, and hazmat response, per the Firefighting Wiki.
The department's footprint expanded further on October 1, 2025, when the City of Brooksville officially transferred its municipal fire and rescue operations to county control, consolidating emergency response countywide, according to the City of Brooksville. Hernando County Fire Rescue also maintains a performance benchmark of responding to 90% of calls within 7 minutes and 30 seconds, per OpenGov data.
The department's hazmat unit has handled a range of incident types beyond chemical spills and suspicious packages. In April, crews worked alongside the Florida Forest Service to suppress a 12-acre brush fire on Burns Road in South Brooksville, deploying bulldozers, brush trucks, and helicopter water drops, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. Details on Tuesday's incident, including the identity of the hazardous material and the condition of the two hospitalized patients, have not yet been released.
