FEMA Trains 700 Responders on Homeland Security Equipment
June 1, 2007
More than 700 emergency responders from 47 states and Puerto Rico recently received training on equipment their departments will receive through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Fiscal Year 2006 Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program (CEDAP). This includes representatives from 19 departments who received accelerated training and equipment delivery because they are located in areas at high risk for hurricanes, tornados or wildfires.
The CEDAP Training Conference was held at the New Orleans May 29 – June 1. Representatives from the 19 “high-risk” departments received training on equipment to improve incident communications, either an incident commander’s radio interface or radio interoperability system. Other responders will be trained on thermal imagers, devices used to detect humans and other warm-blooded creatures through building walls, a smoke-filled room or in darkness.
CEDAP helps meet the equipment needs of smaller jurisdictions and eligible metropolitan areas by providing communications interoperability, information sharing, chemical detection, sensors, personal protective equipment and other devices. Training and technical assistance are provided at the time technologies are delivered and transferred under the program to ensure recipients will be able to use awarded systems and devices fully and correctly.
Responders receiving CEDAP training in New Orleans successfully competed with more than 7,000 organizations for one of the 2,001 equipment and training awards made through the Fiscal Year 2006 program. More than $34.6 million in FY 2006 equipment and training awards were announced in March. Since its inception in Fiscal Year 2005, more than $69.7 million in equipment and equipment training has been awarded through CEDAP to law enforcement agencies, fire, and other emergency responders.
— FEMA
