This conference is attended by hundreds of local area firefighters and other first responders, and the emphasis is on training for hazardous materials response.  Continuing Challenge offers a variety of training tracks, with 2-hour, 4-hour, and 8-hour classes. 

The CAMEO products (ALOHA®, CAMEO Chemicals, CAMEOfm, and MARPLOT®) were well represented in the courses this year, with five separate 4-hour classes focused on the suite.  Both basic and advanced overview classes were offered.  Additionally, there was a class that focused on using the ALOHA air dispersion model before, during, and after chemical incidents, and there was also a class that discussed how to share and use geospatial and pre-planning data from MARPLOT and CAMEOfm in other products like the Google Earth app.

The CAMEO team attended the classes to gather feedback from our stakeholders in the emergency response community.  Additionally, we took the opportunity to give the students some sneak peeks about upcoming changes in the software suite—and to make sure they knew about recent releases like the new CAMEO Chemicals app for mobile phones and tablets.

Several other highlights from the conference included:

• A keynote speech from Jamie Hyneman from the TV show MythBusters, who discussed some new inventions he’s developing specifically for emergency responders.
• Several hands-on sessions using TRANSCAER’s training locomotive to looking at technical information, response considerations, and practical guidance for incidents involving rail transport of compressed gases.
• A live burn demonstration by DuPont’s Thermo-Man team showing how various PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) clothing options respond to fire exposure.  The picture shows one of the test burns.

For more information, contact Brianne.Connolly@noaa.gov or Dalina.Viveros@noaa.gov.

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