Training courses held at Latin America’s largest training center featured real-scenario drills on emergency response with hazardous chemicals
By Equipo de Redacción
Posted in March 22, 2021
Between February 22 and 26, Ambipar conducted a Hazmat – Operations Level training course for firefighters from various Brazilian regions.
The training – a.k.a. International Course on Emergency Response with Hazardous Products – was held at Ambipar’s Multimodal Training Camp – located in Nova Odessa, an inland town in the state of São Paulo –, which is considered to be the largest in Latin America. It was taught by internationally-certified multidisciplinary instructors with practical experience in real events.
During the five-day course, four firefighters from the 5th Fire Corps stationed in Maringá, state of Paraná, participated in the Hazmat training along with teams from the São Paulo Fire Corps.
To obtain technical and practical knowledge that will allow them to develop defensive and preventive actions due to emergencies with chemical and hazardous products, including assessment and monitoring techniques, the firefighters attended theory and practical classes totaling a course load of 40 hours.
Theory lessons comprised legislation, standards, manuals, types of Personal Protective Equipment, emergency materials – including what purpose each one is used for – and studies that must be consulted and strictly followed during the response to emergencies with chemical and hazardous products.
In practical lessons, students performed drills with real emergency scenarios in which they needed to set up emergency response structures, select and dress the appropriate PPE, identify the scenario, detect the presence of hazardous products to assess the overall risk by employing basic recognition techniques, contain the chemical spill, rescue the victims and decontaminate the emergency professionals.
The Hazmat – Operations Level training meets the requirements of national and international legislation and is based on NFPA[1] 472 (North American standard), ABNT[2] NBR[3] 14064 (Brazilian standard) and other regulations on the matter.
At the end of the training process, firefighters were better prepared to respond to emergencies with hazardous products in those cities in the states of Paraná and São Paulo where the Fire Corps that took part in the training are stationed, by increasing their technical quality in safeguarding people and material assets while reducing the impact on nature, thus preserving the environment to the fullest, for the enjoyment of generations to come.
The next Hazmat – Operations Level training course is scheduled for May 3 to 7.
[1] NFPA: National Fire Protection Association
[2] ABNT: Brazilian Technical Standards Association
[3] NBR: Brazilian Regulatory Standard
