Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Representatives of Uzbekistan’s Defense Ministry and National Guard are taking part in a weeklong exchange of experience with emergency services in the US state of Mississippi under the U.S. National Guard’s State Partnership Program, the Mississippi National Guard said.
The program is implemented by the U.S. National Guard Bureau and provides for partnerships between the National Guard of individual U.S. states and foreign countries. Mississippi has partnered with Bolivia since 1999 and with Uzbekistan since 2012.
On Wednesday, the Uzbek delegation visited the Mississippi State Fire Academy in Pearl. Amanda Villare, director of the Mississippi National Guard’s State Partnership Program, said the visit was organized to familiarize the delegation with the academy’s structure and operations, as Uzbekistan is developing its own firefighter training system.
According to the Mississippi State Fire Academy, it trains about 15,000 students annually and offers more than 90 training courses.
Academy lead instructor Marcus Collier said the Uzbek representatives studied training for airport fire services, techniques for rescuing people from trenches, and recruit exercises for extinguishing three-dimensional fires involving flammable liquids.
The delegation also studied other areas of the state’s emergency services, including training in search and rescue operations following building collapses in Philadelphia and rescue operations in hard-to-reach areas.
During the week, the Uzbek representatives are also scheduled to learn about high-rise building rescue training, as well as the work of public safety and law enforcement agencies.
