When firefighter Jared Yax’s pager goes off, he faces the usual split-second decision: drop what he’s doing, race to the Walker Fire Department station, and respond to an emergency. But Yax brings something unique to the fire truck — specialized training in protecting art and cultural artifacts from disaster.
Yax is one of fewer than 200 people nationwide certified as a National Heritage Responder through HEART (Heritage Emergency and Response Training), a program sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and FEMA that prepares emergency responders to protect cultural heritage during disasters.
“I help museums or cultural institutions find resources that they need in an emergency, or to be able to train them to prepare for an emergency,” said Yax, who spells his last name Y-A-X…