Photo By Cmdr. Michael Cody | An instructor from the University of Miami’s Global Institute for Community Health...... read more read more
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Instructors from the University of Miami’s Global Institute for Community Health and Development provided hazardous-materials training to fire and rescue professionals from three countries from May 14 through May 16 at Mariscal Zavala military base as part of CENTAM Guardian 2025.
The training included a total of 30 members of Guatemala’s national fire and rescue service, known as Bomberos Voluntarios; Guatemala’s national disaster-response coordination agency, known as CONRED; rescue units from the Guatemalan and Honduran armies; El Salvador’s army medical group; and representatives of the toxic chemical information center at the University of San Carlos of Guatemala and the Guatemalan Red Cross.
Organized by the public-private cooperation branch of U.S. Southern Command's exercise and coalition affairs directorate, it aimed to enhance the capacity of participating nations to respond effectively to natural disasters and humanitarian crises through coordinated humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief operations. In fact, a key benefit of the training was the communication that occurred among members of agencies that typically operate in isolation, said Elyzabeth Estrada, the assistant director of disaster management for the Global Institute.
“Never do they have the opportunity to integrate,” she said, adding, “CENTAM Guardian allows that. They can show their equipment and their capabilities, which empowers them to rely on one another in real-world incidents.”
Co-sponsored this year by U.S. Southern Command and Guatemala's Ministry of Defense, the exercise involves more than 900 service members and disaster-relief specialists from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the United States, reinforcing a shared commitment to regional stability, peace and prosperity.
U.S. Southern Command integrated a number of nonfederal entities into CENTAM Guardian, and each of them provided training at no charge, said Hani Abukishk, the interorganizational coordinator in the command's public-private cooperation branch. The entities include the Airborne International Response Team, a nongovernmental organization that provides drone training and that paid for two firefighters from Costa Rica to serve as instructors; Deployed Logix, a private company that provided urban search and rescue training, plus training in the deployment of a field hospital it donated several years ago; Colt Manufacturing, which supported small-arms maintenance and inspections; L3 Harris, which provided communications training and support; and the Global Institute.
In planning for the exercise, disaster-relief specialists from partner nations were asked to identify gaps in their own organizations' training, Abukishk said. He then turned to the Global Institute, a 100% donor-funded organization that focuses on humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and capacity-building in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Over the past 1 ½ years, the Global Institute has developed and carried out several training programs on behalf of U.S. Southern Command, covering cyber consequence management, incident command systems, cardiopulmonary resuscitation for citizens and other topics.“ They outdo themselves every time,” Abukishk said. “We can't ask for better partners.”
For CENTAM Guardian, the Global Institute engaged active and retired firefighters with experience and expertise in hazardous-materials incidents and fluency in Spanish. For two days, with reference books donated by the Global Institute, they reviewed procedures for responding to hazardous-material spills, methods for identifying and neutralizing toxic chemicals, and safety measures. On the third day, exercise participants organized themselves into teams and responded to two incidents: one that involved a leaking drum of notional liquid chlorine and one that involved an overturned truck with an injured driver and a damaged canister of notional phenyl mercaptan, a chemical often used as a pesticide.
To respond to the leaking drums, participants donned hazardous-materials suits and made their way cautiously to the scene, where they used reactive strips to identify the chemical, then plugged the leak. To respond to the truck crash, participants donned firefighter gear and clambered into a ravine, where they turned the canister upright, sprayed water to mitigate noxious effects, stabilized the driver – represented by a dummy – and carried him to safety.
In both cases, participants kept contact with their incident command centers from the start to the finish, which included passing through notional decontamination chutes.
Romulo Mejia, the hazardous-materials coordinator for CONRED, said he saw decision-making in the incident command centers as the primary benefit of the training and he appreciated the benefits of putting classroom and practical training together.
“That is why the training is so beneficial,” he said. “It's not only theory. … It allows participants to identify the roles they would fulfill in an active hazardous-materials incident.”
Josue Marroquin, the fire chief for the Mixco zone of Guatemala City and the countrywide hazardous-materials leader for the Bomberos Voluntarios, said he was glad that expert instructors traveled to Guatemala, so more of his firefighters could get the training.
As a result of the training, “They've been able to learn hands-on and see what chemicals they are dealing with,” he said. “They're able to synchronize all of the tools they have available, so they fully understand the implementation.”
| Date Taken: | 05.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.19.2025 16:17 |
| Story ID: | 498381 |
| Location: | GUATEMALA CITY, GT |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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