CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Public Safety Expo begins Wednesday morning at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. It will be the first full schedule for the expo since before the covid pandemic.
Kanawha County Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman, one of the organizers of the event, said first responders from across the state are scheduled to attend.
“I think like everybody else when you come back from covid it’s a slow start but so far the numbers look okay,” Sigman said.
The expo features training classes designed specifically for the jobs that first responders perform.
Sigman said he’s looking forward to some training associated with electric vehicles set for Friday.
“They’ve been doing a lot of research on fire suppression. We have folks coming in to talk to us about how we can be aggressive firefighters,” Sigman said.
Other topics to be discussed include “Hospital Fires” and “Profiling Dangerous Individuals and Predicting Violent Incidents.”
The latest equipment will also be on display from vendors.
The expo runs through Saturday morning.
Tabletop exercise
Kanawha County firs responders took part in a tabletop exercise Tuesday. Sigman said it was modeled after what happened in East Palestine, Ohio.
“It was a simulated rail incident,” Sigman said. “The (Kanawha) county commission wanted us to do that after the incident in Ohio to kind of brush up and make sure we’re all on the same page.”
Sigman said it was a good drill.
“It went well, good learning and good cooperation,” he said. “What’s nice is that when you have a real incident you know who your friends are who will come and help you. There were industry support to come give you advice and all of the support agencies.”