First responsePennsylvania emergency professionals receive WMD training

The Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Alabama hosted more than a hundred emergency professionals from the Pennsylvania South Central Mountains Regional Task Force’s Health and Medical Committee for in-depth response-to-WMD training.

Gant Dailyreports that the CDP, operated by DHS, is the only federally chartered weapons of mass destruction training facility in the United States. The training took place last month over the course of four days and included one hundred and forty three members from hospitals, emergency medical services, and public health services. The training was free for those who attended.

Those who attended the training took part in one of three classes, “healthcare leadership for mass casualty incidents,” “hospital emergency response training,” and “emergency medical operations.” On the last day, the attendees participated in an integrated capstone event (ICE) training exercise which included several small domestic terrorist events, with more than 200 people needing decontamination, triage, and treatment.

“We all came back with a better understanding of what we need to focus on to improve our responses back at our jobs in Pennsylvania,” Sue Wertz, safety officer for Altoona Regional Health System told Gant Daily.

The CDP is run by DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and offers advanced training for emergency response members, emergency managers, and officials from state and local governments.

CDP’s Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological Training Facility (COBRA) holds a number of training courses throughout the year and is the only facility in the United States that features training exercises in a true toxic environment with chemical agents.