Press Release  Massachusetts Delivers Specialized Training to Prepare Firefighters for Building Collapses and Major Emergencies

BRIDGEWATER — The Healey-Driscoll Administration today highlighted specialized structural collapse rescue training that is strengthening Massachusetts’ ability to respond to some of the most complex and dangerous emergencies firefighters can face.

Now in its fourth year, the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy’s Structural Collapse Rescue Technician curriculum trains firefighters to safely reach and rescue people trapped following building collapses and other major incidents. Structural collapse incidents can result from building failures, vehicle crashes, explosions, severe weather, and other events. Firefighters with advanced technical rescue training may also be called upon to assist with major disaster responses outside Massachusetts, making it important for the state to maintain a highly trained and prepared rescue workforce.

“The Massachusetts Firefighting Academy delivers vital training every day that equips our firefighters to do their jobs with precision and skill,” said Public Safety and Security Secretary Gina Kwon. “Recognizing the enormous impact of earthquakes around the world and other situations that may require these technical skills, this program prepares them to respond to the most complex emergencies before they ever occur.”

The most recent Structural Collapse Rescue Technician course ran from September 28 to October 5, with more than two dozen students representing the fire departments of Acushnet, Agawam, Bourne, Braintree, Brewster, Brockton, Brookline, Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills, Charlton, Clinton, Dedham, Dudley, Fall River, Gloucester, Lowell, Mansfield, Marlborough, Oxford, Quincy, Stow, Sudbury, Wellesley, Westborough, and Worcester.

“The Massachusetts Firefighting Academy is known for training new recruits, but our students come from every level of the fire service, right up to chief officers,” said State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine. “We deliver upward of three dozen technical rescue courses each year at no cost to students or their departments. And all of them are led by firefighters with extensive, real-world experience managing these high-risk incidents.”

The eight-day Structural Collapse Rescue Technician course has been offered at the Department of Fire Services’ Bridgewater campus since 2022. Through classroom instruction and hands-on exercises, students learn to lift and move heavy debris and vehicles using hand tools and heavy machinery. They also practice breaching concrete and other barriers to reach victims and shoring up unstable structures so rescue teams can safely enter and remove injured occupants.

“We teach our students using a crawl-walk-run framework,” said Massachusetts Firefighting Academy Technical Rescue Program Coordinator and Braintree Fire Department Lt. Mark McCabe. “They receive classroom instruction, apply what they’ve learned in practical exercises, and then simulate real-world events in complex, large-scale scenarios.”

Before the Academy launched the Structural Collapse Rescue Technician course in 2022, firefighters often had to travel out of state to obtain professional instruction in these skills. Now, the training is available at no cost here in Massachusetts, taught by instructors with decades of experience – including interstate and international deployments to assist in disaster response. This training is expected to expand in the years ahead as structural collapse props are built into the expanding Bridgewater campus.

“We don’t see many earthquakes in Massachusetts, and I hope we never have to endure what Venezuela, Japan, and Tibet went through this summer,” said State Fire Marshal Davine. “But the depth and quality of instruction in our Technical Rescue program has elevated the Commonwealth’s fire service to the international level when it comes to our response capabilities, and we plan to take it even higher.”

The Academy’s Technical Rescue Group provides specialized training in rope, water, ice, trench, confined space, and structural collapse rescue. These programs meet or exceed the internationally recognized guidelines set in NFPA 1006, Standard for Technical Rescue Personnel Professional Qualifications, and they’re offered at no cost at the Academy’s campuses in Stow, Springfield, and Bridgewater, as well as at local fire departments across Massachusetts.

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