Recent Training Used by TX Firefighters at Mall Shooting

Last month firefighters and paramedics teamed up with local police to enter the Rolling Oaks Mall while it was still a crime scene.

They did this due to a special training program they completed last summer. Called Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training or ALERRT, it is designed to train firefighters to treat victims before law enforcement clears an active shooter from a location. The goal is to reduce fatalities by enabling firefighters and medics to treat a shooting victim within 15 minutes of being wounded.

This heightens the opportunity to save more lives, as News Four San Antonio reported.

Sam Shurley, an ALERRT lead instructor, said during an interview: "It's in that time that it takes us to clear an entire building that people are bleeding to death.”

Firefighters at five San Antonio fire stations have completed the training so far; eight of these firefighters were at the mall during last month's shooting.

The city is seeking to expand the training to 21 stations in total by 2017’s end, News Four reported.

Firefighters must wear ballistics gear with attached medical supplies that add 35 pounds of weight to whatever else they need to carry.

Firefighters who are trained also need to closely coordinate with law enforcement.

SAFD Special Operations Unit Medic Chris Young told News Four: "We rely on the San Antonio Police Department to provide that safety corridor and a place that we know we can get in safely and get out safely."

Last month, three of the four shooting victims survived, per the News Four report. Also, not one paramedic or firefighter was wounded.