FEMA Brings Public Safety WMD Course To MFR

For the past three days personnel from Midway Fire Rescue, Myrtle Beach Fire Rescue, Horry County Fire Rescue, Pawleys Island Police Department and North Myrtle Beach Public Safety have been at Midway Fire Rescue, Station 82 attending the Public Safety WMD Response, Sampling Techniques and Guidelines course. The course is sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Louisiana State University which is the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training. The course is intended to prepare hazardous materials teams within local and state emergency response agencies to safely and effectively conduct public safety operations at known or suspected weapons of mass destruction (WMD) incident scenes.

The 24 hour course had the students in the classroom learning the techniques to safety take public safety samples along with scenario based situations that the students completed. The scenarios were real life situations in which the crews had to dress out to take simulated samples of weapons of mass destruction devices.

A big thanks to the LSU staff that taught the course and to all the participants to make the class happen.

Participating Departments:

Midway Fire Rescue

Myrtle Beach Fire Rescue

Horry County Fire Rescue

Pawleys Island Police Department

North Myrtle Beach Public Safety