ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. – Base fire fighters are leveraging their specialized training to offer a course for fellow local search and rescue teams to help enhance disaster response efforts.

A Confined Space/Structural Collapse class is scheduled to be held July 30 to Aug. 3, 2012 at the 97th Civil Engineer Fire Department training pit. The course will focus on equipping local agencies to address emergencies stemming from natural disasters or terrorist incidents that cause collapsed structures. Within this scope, the participants will learn how to identify hazards, stabilize buildings, and safely locate and extricate victims trapped beneath debris.

The training is scheduled to conclude with a field exercise Aug. 3 at 8 a.m., to include breaching and breaking, hot cutting of steel and post-tensioned cables, mitigating hanging slabs, installing anchoring systems and conducting concrete cutting within confined spaces.

This advanced curriculum was designed by Tech-ResQ Training Specialists, providing complex interactive disaster scenarios for state and federal urban search and rescue teams and other specialized search and rescue teams across the country.

News organizations are invited to cover the culminating exercise Aug. 3. For more information or to confirm attendance, call the 97th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs office at (580) 481-7700 or email 97amw.pa@af.mil.