8:00am to 4:00pm

Crush, Impalement, and Entrapment Response for First Responders

First responders, prepare to enhance your skills in managing complex rescue scenarios. Join us for an intensive 8-hour training designed to equip you with the tools, techniques, and confidence to handle incidents involving crush injuries, impalements, and entrapments. Whether facing industrial accidents or terrorism-related incidents, this training will teach you how to apply your everyday tools effectively in high-pressure situations.

Training Highlights:

• In-Depth Instruction: Learn the complexities of crush, impalement, and entrapment situations through structured lectures and real-life case studies. The training will focus on scenarios such as machine entrapment, building collapses, vehicle rammings, and more.
• Hands-On Simulations: Gain experience through performance stations that mirror real-world challenges, including fence and rebar impalements, meat grinder entrapments, and large machinery rescues.
• Skill Building & Best Practices: Understand best practices for safety, medical considerations, command structure, and inter-agency collaboration during large-scale incidents.

The training is free. Registration is required. Please complete the form below to register.

Key Skills You Will Develop:

• Identifying and assessing crush, impalement, and entrapment situations.
• Utilizing everyday tools to extricate victims safely and efficiently.
• Managing medical concerns specific to crush injuries, impalements, and entrapments.

Why Attend? This training is a unique opportunity to advance your skills with expert instruction and simulated rescue scenarios. Take advantage of this valuable experience to prepare for high-stakes situations and bring these life-saving techniques back to your team.

8 hours of CAPCE credits are available for this training.

Update Friday Nov 1 : The training is full. We are accepting a waitlist. Please complete the form below to join the waitlist. You will be notified if any seats become available.

Lunch is provided by Orange Fire Department.

Registration is closed for this training. Thank you for your interest.

Multiple Times

Monday June 24 – Registration is closed for this training. Thank you for your interest. 

Hostile threats and attacks are ongoing and can occur in any location. Soft targets such as community events, performances, elections, sporting events, parades, fairs, etc. are particularly vulnerable. These vulnerabilities highlight an urgent need for effective strategies to identify and prevent acts of violence.

Situational Awareness for Safety training  provides knowledge, tools, and techniques to help you maintain situational awareness and stay safe. By the end of the course, participants will know:

● How to systematically observe their environment;

● How to identify people and things that may not look right; and

● How to make more informed decisions and take actions to stay safe

Audience: Fire, EMS, private security, election workers, hospital security, community event staff, sporting event staff, and anyone seeking abilities to identify behavioral indicators of possible threat. This training is not intended for law enforcement. The training is based on skills law enforcement learn in their academies and other required trainings.

The basis for this course is the research and techniques developed as part of the Just Doesn’t Look Right Project (JDLR). The JDLR Project was a United States Department of Defense (DoD) funded research program focused on identifying behavioral indicators of threat.

This training is free. Registration is required. Three sessions will be held throughout western Mass.

• Tuesday, June 25, 12:30pm to 2:30pm, Agawam
• Tuesday, June 25, 5:30pm to 7:30pm, Pittsfield
• Wednesday, June 26 12:30 to 4:30, Hadley (this session provides expanded education and exercise opportunities)
• Wednesday, June 26, 6:00 to 8:00pm, Greenfield

Registration is required. Please complete the following form to register.

Monday June 24 Update – Registration is closed.

8:00am to 2:00pm

The Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council and Western Mass Fire Chiefs Association are proud to present Extreme Ownership Leadership Training by ©Echelon Front, LLC. An intensive leadership training program designed to equip you with the tools and mindset to lead effectively in any situation.

Why Extreme Ownership?

All your problems are leadership problems, and Extreme Ownership (©Echelon Front, LLC) is the solution. Learn how to take ownership of your actions, decisions, and outcomes to lead and win in both business and life.

Key Topics Include:

Laws of Combat: Implement strategies for optimal team performance, including cover and move, simple, prioritize and execute, and decentralized command.

Extreme Ownership: Dive deep into the concept of leadership as the single most important factor in success. Understand that there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.

Mindset: Develop a default aggressive mindset and learn techniques for controlling your ego to make better decisions.

Sustaining Victory: Master leading up and down the chain of command, empower your subordinates, make decisive choices in uncertain situations, and embrace discipline for freedom.

Practical Application: Apply your newfound knowledge and beliefs about leadership to real-world scenarios.

Date and Time:

Friday, May 10, 2024. 8:00am to 2:00pm

Location:

Hadley Senior Center
46 Middle St, Hadley, MA 01035

Audience:

This training is open to fire officers in the four counties of western Massachusetts. We kindly request that each sign-up be done in pairs. We encourage the pairing of two fire officers from any rank in each department. This approach fosters collaboration and diverse perspectives, enhancing the learning experience for all participants.

Registration is required. Update Tuesday, May 7, 2024. The training and waitlist are full. Thank you for your interest. 

8:30am to 4:30pm

Monday, May 13, 2024
The Minds, Lives and Motivations of Mass Attackers

A Conference with renowned expert Dr. Peter Langman

Following a school shooting or ideological attack, we often wonder if there were warning signs that we missed. We think we know what a typical shooter looks like, but do we really? Is there even such a thing as a “typical” shooter?

Who are these people, and what are the psychological dynamics driving their behavior? What is going on behind the scenes prior to an attack? What factors mitigate risks, and when do they deserve a closer look? What are the psychological barriers to reporting or investigating suspicious behaviors?

“The truth is that there is no profile. School shooters are not all bullied, they are not all loners, and they are not all obsessed with violent video games or firearms. Sometimes they commit random attacks against strangers, sometimes they carry out narrowly focused attacks against specific people, and sometimes there are both random and targeted victims.”  –Dr. Peter Langman, PhD.

Though mass shooters are not all cut from the same cloth, over decades of research Dr. Langman has uncovered persistent patterns in the types of people who commit these attacks. The Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council is bringing Dr. Langman, a leading expert on this topic and author of the books Why Kids Kill (2009), School Shooters (2015), and Warning Signs (2021), to share his findings about perpetrators of mass violence: who they are, what drives them, and what warning signs to look for.

Dr. Langman will use real case studies to illustrate pathways to violence, protective factors, and reasons that suspicious behaviors are often overlooked. He will share tips on “insider references” to look out for (for example, “1488” scribbled on a student’s notebook is a bright red flag) and how to assess threats. The full day conference will focus on school shooters in the morning and broaden to other types of perpetrators in the afternoon. There will also be ample opportunity for Q&A.

The conference is free of charge and open to the public, and is particularly geared to those working in law enforcement, K-12 schools, higher education, hospitals, public health, mental health, first responders, and other public-facing disciplines.

Registration is required. Click here to register. Participants are encouraged to order lunch through the registration form or bring their own lunch to minimize interruptions to the content.

Please be advised that this conference will address sensitive topics, including some graphic language and details.

8:30am to 5:30pm

WRHSAC is offering a session of Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support Training (PHTLS) at Easthampton Fire Department on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 23 and 24, 2024.

PHTLS is the premier pre-hospital trauma education developed in cooperation with the American College of Surgeons to promote critical thinking in addressing multi-system trauma and provide the latest evidence-based treatment practices. The program will strengthen the EMS providers’ assessment skills and techniques for managing patients in distress. The program is based on a pre-hospital trauma care philosophy, stressing the treatment of the multi-system trauma patient as a unique entity with specific needs and has shown to improve the quality of trauma care in all patients and also decrease mortality.

This is a two-day, sixteen hour training for first responders who are EMT-B through EMT-P trained.

The training is free. OEMS credits will be provided.

Registration is required.

Thank you for your interest in the training. As of Tuesday, March 26, 2024 the training is full and the waitlist is at capacity. 

WRHSAC’s series of Active Attack Integrated Response Trainings continues with a session on Wednesday and Thursday, April 17 and 18, 2024, in Holyoke.

This 16-hour, performance-level, direct-delivery course aims to enhance collaboration among law enforcement, fire, dispatch, and emergency medical services (EMS) during active attack/shooter events. It introduces a model framework for Rescue Task Force (RTF) response.

Focused on elevating the safety and survivability of active attack/shooter event victims, the training also strives to enhance the efficiency, coordination, and resource integration among law enforcement, fire, dispatch, and EMS responders. Aligned with NFPA 3000, the Standard for an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response (ASHER) program, this training prioritizes adherence to established guidelines.

The training is free. Application is required. Space is limited so apply soon!
The training is appropriate for law enforcement, fire and EMS.

8:00am to 5:00pm

WRHSAC is offering four sessions of EMS Pediatric Acute Care training. Boston Medical Center’s Community Outreach Mobile Education Team’s (COMET) will facilitate the training. The training aims to bridge gaps within pediatric acute care by providing in-situ simulated training.

Each session is four hours long. Two sessions will be held on each of the following days. The first two sessions are on Thursday, February 1, 2024 in Holyoke. The final two sessions are on Friday, February 2, in Pittsfield. Session start times are 8:00am and 1:00pm. The trainings are open and appropriate for EMS. You need to be a licensed EMS to be an active participant. 

The training will prepare EMS for pediatric emergencies in all types of situations including trauma sustained during active shooter/hostile incidents and other emergencies. The training focuses not only on medical skills but also critical thinking and assessment required in complex response. Multiple simulations of a variety of incidents will be conducted in each day.

The training offers two levels of participation, first as an active player in a scenario and secondly as observer of scenarios and their subsequent hot washes. As an active participant you will role play in at least one of the day’s simulations. Each simulation will include 4 to 6 role players. When you aren’t a role player in a simulation, you will be an observer and can participate in the hot washes and ask questions. Remote observation via zoom is also offered for the Pittsfield sessions. As a remote observer you will have a bird’s eye view of the scenarios and hot washes. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions during the hot wash.

The training is free. Registration is required.

Registration for this training is now closed.

8:00am to 5:00pm

The Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council in partnership with the Western Mass Fire Chiefs Association (WMFCA) and the Western Mass Chiefs of Police Association (WMCOPA) are hosting a series of Active Attack Integrated Response (AAIR) Trainings for the region.

The series begins with the AAIR Train-the-Trainer Course in November. This 40-hour performance level direct delivery course is designed to improve integration between law enforcement, fire, dispatch, and emergency medical services (EMS) in active attack/shooter events.

This Train-the-Trainer session is specifically for individuals who are willing and able to become AAIR instructors to teach fellow first responders throughout the region. The session will train law enforcement, fire, EMS, and dispatchers. Interested individuals from these four disciplines are invited to apply. (see below)

The course provides law enforcement officers with key medical skills based on Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) guidelines, which can be used at the Point of Injury (POI) to increase survivability of victims.

The course also provides a model framework for law enforcement, fire, and EMS to integrate responses during an active attack/shooter incident through the Rescue Task Force (RTF) concept.

This training has been designed to improve the safety and survivability of victims of active attack/shooter events and increase the effectiveness, coordination, and resource integration between law enforcement, fire, telecommunications, and EMS when responding to these events.

The Train-the-Trainer course will be held Monday, November 13 through Friday, November 17, 2023 in West Springfield. The training is open to first responders in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden Counties.

There are a limited number of student seats available for this train-the-trainer session. Applications will be accepted for review from the time of this announcement through noon, Wednesday, November 1, 2023. Applications will be reviewed by members of the WMFCA and WMPOCA. Final acceptance into the course will require approval from your employer. Seats for this course are delineated by discipline. Follow the appropriate link below to submit your application.

Registration for this training is closed. Thank you for your interest.

Further information regarding the remaining sessions of this training series will be announced in the coming months. This will be the only train-the-trainer session of this series. Any questions can be directed to Raine Brown, Homeland Security Program Manager.