Hazardous materials training conducted for National Guard Bureau

TEEX is conducting hazardous materials training for the National Guard Bureau response teams across the country. As part of a $500,000 contract with the National Guard Bureau, TEEX is training the Guard’s Task Force CBRNE Enhanced Response Force (TF CERF) at 15 locations across the country.

The 24-hour training program covers hazardous materials awareness and incident response operations, leading to ProBoard certification in two areas.

The program has been conducted in a number of locations so far, from Hawaii to Missouri to Pennsylvania, said Kent Gardner, ESTI HazMat Training Manager. Each class has approximately 100 students and four instructors, who conduct the classroom lectures, hands-on skills training and the ProBoard skills evaluation.

“The National Guard Bureau needed to get these responders trained, and TEEX was able to make that happen,” Gardner said. “We’ll be training and certifying as many as 1,500 National Guard responders through 2009.”

He added that classes were held in Minnesota and Colorado prior to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, to prepare National Guard responders who might be called on to provide security at the conventions.