Last Updated on January 30, 2024 by Cass County Emergency Management Agency
Responders from area response agencies recently completed a four-week course on Hazardous Materials Awareness and Operations, resulting in eligibility for state certification thru the Board of Firefighting Personnel Standards and Education. The course included participants from nine area response organizations, including: Royal Center Fire Department, Lucurne Fire Department, Twelve Mile Fire Department, Georgetown Fire Department, New Waverly Fire Department, Walton Fire Department, Young America Fire Department, Galveston Fire Department and Cass County Emergency Management Agency.
Instruction prepared responders to encounter emergencies involving hazardous materials, and is a prerequisite to other public safety training programs. Most of the responders will be going on to the Cass County Fire Academy (a joint effort of Walton and New Waverly Fire Departments and the Emergency Management Agency) to pursue Firefighter I and II Certifications, and to begin providing service to citizens thru their respective fire departments. A few will be going on to the HAZMAT Technician course, which is an advanced training preparing responders to take offensive actions to mitigate more complex hazardous materials incidents as well as topics on hazardous materials incident leadership. The HAZMAT Technician course is being conducted by the Cass County Emergency Management Agency.
This course was organized and taught by instructors from Cass County Emergency Management Agency, Walton Community Fire Department and New Waverly Fire Department who freely gave their time to make the offering possible. Books and materials for the HAZMAT course were provided thru a grant from the Duke Energy Foundation.
SOURCE: News release from Cass County Emergency Management Agency