Firefighters and officers dress out during a joint training between the Greenwood Fire Department and the Greenwood County Drug Enforcement Unit in preparation for a mock meth lab bust Friday morning. (Matt Walsh | Index-Journal)

A joint training course on meth lab response for Greenwood’s police and fire departments ended in a mock meth lab bust Friday morning.
Outside an empty building on Phoenix Street, members of the Greenwood County Drug Enforcement Unit and the Greenwood Fire Department suited up in airtight hazmat suits and went inside to identify and break down the nonactive labs.
The exercise was the practical application of everything the agents and firefighters learned during the five-day, 40-hour program.

The course was run by Jake Kelton and other instructors from MERIT Training Programs, of Pennsylvania, and it taught the agents and firefighters how to work together and share resources when taking down a meth lab as a combined response team.  Greenwood Police Chief Gerald Brooks called meth labs a unique situation for law enforcement and the fire department. “It’s both a crime scene and a hazmat incident,” he said.
Greenwood Fire Chief Terry Strange said a meth cook results in flammable liquids and dangerous airborne chemicals.