The town’s professional firefighting personnel recently completed a rigorous 80-hour Structural Collapse Technician Course. According to fire officials, the intensive course provided hands-on practical training for the department to prepare members for worst-case scenario emergencies.

According to Department Captain and Deputy Fire Marshal Clint Haverkampf, the structural collapse specialist (technician) course provided the knowledge and skill development necessary to perform rescues at building collapse scenes due to natural disasters and other major emergency incidents.

“At least once a year, but it’s also an ongoing process, we do an internal risk assessment for the town, and look at our response areas, determining what’s appropriate, and where we should be looking for improving our capabilities,” Haverkampf said. “Nationally, there’s also been a push to basically, instead of looking at us as the fire department, we look at ourselves as an all-hazards response department. We want to be ready for any mission. With the increase in severe weather…not necessarily this year, but increased snow load, and coastal flooding, the structures around here are impacted, and we need to respond to these emergencies. A majority of what we would see is weather related, but this is about increasing our readiness for any emergency.”

According to Haverkampf, there was intensive classroom instruction, but the practical training the course provided was invaluable for the students involved in the course, as ultimately, there is no way better way to train for these emergencies than to undertake real-world scenarios.

“There are not a lot of places across the state or even the region that have access to this type of training. Even though it’s so specialized, just as a firefighter or emergency responder, it also provides the ability to make you a better critical thinker and allows better situational awareness on every call we go on. It is really impactful for us as a department. The practical training is incredible. It can’t really be matched in a classroom,” said Haverkampf. “The technical skill and work involved, and the decision making, are extremely valuable. So, even though it’s training, we are still picking up things that are heavy, moving and lifting things that are heavy, so all of the same safety aspects apply, all of the physics still applies, and it’s still a real-world event. The classroom is important, but this type of training is truly unmatched by any other method.”

The 80-hour course was divided into three major topics: constructing emergency shoring (interior and exterior), lifting and moving techniques, and breaching and breaking. According to Haverkampf, the certification is a federal recognition and state-of-the-art, providing a unique skill-building opportunity.

“The students did eight, 10-hour days in a row, so the training was quite intense. They absolutely get some of the best training that is available. It gives us a better understanding of what responders might face,” said Haverkampf. “The curriculum is a national curriculum that comes from FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], and this is part of their Urban Search and Rescue Program.”

According to Haverkampf, the department received a significant grant that allowed the training to be almost fully funded.

“With the grant, it would have been cost-prohibitive otherwise. This is a yearly federal firefighter grant program. So basically, the federal government pays for 90% of the cost, and the municipality is responsible for a 10% match; that’s based on our population. So basically, we got this training for 90% off. It’s a hugely competitive grant program, but we’ve been lucky the last few years. We certainly could not have done this without the grant,” Haverkampf said.

Guilford shares regional emergency response duties with several towns, including dive teams, and this certification will allow the Guilford department to respond regionally to emergencies as well.

“It was super well received by our members. It’s technical, it’s specific, but it truly makes the department more well-rounded responders in general to every type of emergency,” Haverkampf said. “We do regional work with our local partners every day. We are heavily involved in that…we have mutual aid agreements with several partners, and this makes everyone safer all around.”