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Simulated emergency serves as test for responders

by Canda HarbaughWestern News
| September 3, 2009 12:00 AM

A snow load collapsed the Ajax Furniture Co. roof, and many of the 26 victims died on scene or at the hospital. While emergency response crews sifted among the wreckage for signs of life, families of the victims pleaded for information about their loved ones, and the media demanded details.

A realistic scenario – but the commotion Saturday morning was only a simulated exercise at St. John’s Lutheran Hospital Conference Center, a three-story building that can be quite foreboding when set up to look like the scene of a disaster.

“The exercise was to point out where we’re weak and need improvement,” said Tony Rebo, facility manager and safety/security officer at St. John’s.

Rebo staffed the incident command center for the exercise, which worked to control outgoing information about the accident.

Hospital officials planned the drill to practice their mass fatality plan, but local emergency responders and others participated to hone in on their own skills and to practice working together in the event of a large-scale emergency.

The results? Positive, according to Rebo.

“They responded quickly and got in the building quickly,” Rebo said.

In addition, the groups learned what to do differently in the future.

“Anytime we learn there’s a flaw in the system, it’s (the exercise) a success,” he said.

Participants gathered Saturday afternoon in the SJLH Conference Center after the 90-minute exercise to discuss their preliminary findings from the drill. Each participating agency pointed out what worked and what didn’t – and how to perform better for the real deal.

“It really opens your eyes to how the devil comes out in detail,” Eric Kapan, St. John’s emergency room department manager, said during the meeting.

St. John’s learned that it takes too long for one person to go through the phone tree to get extra staff and resources to the hospital in an emergency. Rebo says that multiple calling stations will probably be set up in a future emergency.

Firefighters and ambulance crews pointed out that to work together better they will need to implement a system and stick to it throughout the response.

Though it was an exercise, the scene was still stressful. Emergency responders searched through the pitch-dark building, trying to find victims – some hidden in closets and other nooks – while running into chairs and other obstacles placed in their way. They also dealt with a distraught mother, played by Shanda Jennings, who entered the building unnoticed and stumbled around, howling for them to find her daughter.

Some parts of the scenario couldn’t be played out completely with the absence of David Thompson Search and Rescue, which was on a real mission, and the limited participation of the sheriff’s office, which was tied up with the county fair in Eureka.

“It’s hard when you have people sneaking in,” Capt. Roby Bowe of the sheriff’s office said at Saturday’s meeting, “and that does happen at accident scenes. But there would’ve been a lot more law enforcement there (if it were a real emergency).”

Agencies will hold their own debriefing on the drill, and then discuss their results at the next Local Emergency Planning Committee, which is chaired by Vic White, director of the county Emergency Management Agency.