CDP adapts, enhances hazmat training during COBRA construction

FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) has contingency plans for practically any situation which could alter resident training and that includes construction in one of its most popular on-campus training areas.

When training in the live agent training bays at the CDP’s Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological Training Facility (COBRATF) was suspended earlier this year, to enable the bays to be refurbished, the center had plans to ensure it could continue to supply the same level of training to students.

For two of the center’s hazardous materials classes, that has included additional scenarios or equipment time to enrich the student experience.

Students in the Hazardous Materials Operations (HMO) Course have had the benefit during this time of a scenario simulating hazardous materials mitigation techniques during a incident in a confined space, requiring groups of students to demonstrate advanced agility and situational awareness in addition to the teamwork always required in a CDP exercise.

Hazardous Materials Technologies: Sampling, Monitoring and Detection (HT) Course students, meanwhile, have gained an extra day to work with a portable mass spectrometer and a handheld chemical detector, which are not currently used in live agent training.

All the classes continue to have the benefit for students of building relationships with and gaining knowledge from other students as well as the instructors.

“We always talk about how you learn different things from the various instructors and the other students in the class, all of whom come from different areas of the country,” said Tiffany Koontz, course manager of the CDP’s hazardous materials program.

The HMO Course will be presented six more times this year. For additional information or to apply for the course, visit https://cdp.dhs.gov/training/course/PER-322.

HT will be offered five more times this year. For additional information or to apply for the course, visit https://cdp.dhs.gov/training/course/PER-261.

Information on all CDP courses can be found on its website at cdp.dhs.gov.