Colo. National Guard Haz-Mat Team Training This Weekend

BRIGHTON, CO -- While other Coloradans enjoy the first weekend of summer, members of a hazmat unit of the Colorado National Guard will spend the weekend practicing exercises at the North Metro Fire Training Center for a chemical disaster scenario with mass casualties. The federally funded Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Enhanced Response Force Package -- based at Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora -- is under Gov. John Hickenlooper's command to assist in any incidents involving a laundry list of nightmare scenarios:

"Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents ... patient and mass-casualty decontamination, emergency medical services, and casualty search and extraction," the agency said in a press release.

The group will also learn about the National Guard members' response during the eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Klassy, a communications expert from Colorado, deployed with the Arizona National Guard 91st CST.

“Helping our neighbors during their time of need is what we do,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Loh, Adjutant General of Colorado in a press release.“In this case, we provided support for a regional partner to help the people of the Big Island of Hawaii.”

The training exercises take place Friday through Sunday June 1-3 this weekend.

The Search and Extraction team of the Colorado National Guard's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) conducts disaster ingress and patient extraction during a full scale exercise in a training facility on the Community College of Aurora - Lowry Campus, Nov. 5, 2016, in Aurora, Colorado, where the entire CERFP team practiced command and control, search and extraction, medical triage, and mass decontamination. (U.S. Air National Guard Photo by Maj. Darin Overstreet)