Guam firefighter gets mainland bomb training

by Nick Delgado

Guam - Preparedness is key when it comes to people responding to or dealing with bomb threats. GFD's Captain Rueben Olivas recently attended a train the trainer course in New Mexico dealing with explosives and terroristic bombing. He says the trip was coordinated through GFS and the Guam Homeland Security. Through the training, he shares there should always be someone designated to handle bomb threats.

"You need to have a safety officer designated at any government agency or any business because you have an obligation to your employees and any person that should enter your business, you need to know what to do," he said. "You also have to be able to differentiate whether you need to evacuate due to a bomb threat or not evacuate, there's a lot of things that go into bomb threat training."

In the last several weeks, the Judiciary of Guam had four bomb threats each time authorities found nothing. Olivas says bomb threats are usually called in to disrupt services and are 99 percent of the time a hoax. He does however say each one should be taken seriously.