Fort Drum, local agencies collaborate during mass casualty exercise
September 20, 2012
FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- When a serious emergency arises, Fort Drum emergency personnel have to be ready to answer the call no matter what. The installation's fire and emergency services personnel had an opportunity to test their skills last week during a mass casualty exercise at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield.
At 8 a.m. Thursday, a C-130 Hercules carrying 55 redeploying Soldiers "crash landed" on the runway. Fort Drum personnel and emergency support agencies from Jefferson County teamed up to respond to the site of the simulated crash.
"The objective of the exercise was to test our abilities to respond to a situation like that and work with the local community to get ambulance support, get (the injured) to the local hospitals and coordinate with the (Jefferson) County Emergency Management Services so that we can work together and (react appropriately) if we have a scenario like this actually happen," said Terry Byard, Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security installation emergency manager.
First responders included members of Fort Drum Directorate of Emergency Services, as well as Jefferson County Fire and Emergency Management, Jefferson County medical examiner, Samaritan Medical Center and Carthage Area Hospital. Fire and emergency medical personnel from Evans Mills, North Pole, Pamelia, Great Bend, Natural Bridge, Deferiet, Carthage and Black River also participated in the training exercise.
"We had a report that a C-130 came in and had a hard landing … on the runway, so we came up here and set our crash trucks up to eliminate any fire hazard," said Capt. Robert W. Tennies, Fort Drum Fire Department. "Once we contained that, we went onboard, secured the aircraft and began triaging the victims on board the aircraft from minor injuries to immediate injuries."
The training event was part of an annual large-scale exercise that allows the installation's emergency personnel and local agencies to work together and respond to a simulated critical situation, Byard explained.
"Every opportunity we have to get together and work through a situation like this helps build our relationships and help us understand how we (all) work," he said. "It makes us better able to react when needed.
"I like to say that we're all part of the same community up here in the North Country," Byard continued. "It's vitally important that we're able to work together and support each other's strengths to make us more capable all around."
Emergency personnel on the scene were effective and timely when triaging casualties and transporting them to area hospitals, Byard added.
Tennies agreed.
"Training gets us better (prepared) so we can handle these situations," he said. "We're really good at what we do here, but we also need (local agencies) to come in and help us and get the two pieces to come together."
The annual exercise is just one example of Fort Drum and local emergency services coming together to help one another, Tennies noted.
"When the county calls us, we're there in a heartbeat; when we need them, they're here to help us," he said.
Byard agreed, adding that Fort Drum and the surrounding communities have a great relationship.
After all of the casualties were accounted for and transported to area hospitals, the second piece of the exercise consisted of mostly administrative tasks, coordinating casualty notifications and environmental cleanup, Byard said.
He noted that it is critical for personnel to practice effective communication skills between post and local agencies.
"We have very limited resources in the North Country to be able to take care of a mass casualty situation with a lot of fatalities," Byard said. "That's one thing we really work with Jefferson County, because we definitely have to share resources to handle that (type of situation).
"I think that because Fort Drum doesn't have a hospital, it challenges us to work more closely with the local community," he added. "I think that has been a great asset for us because it forces us to work together, and it's helped us to build those really great relationships."
Joseph Plummer, Jefferson County Fire and Emergency Management director, said the training event allowed his fire and ambulance crews to meet some of the annual mandatory training requirements agencies are required to complete, but also to work on their communication skills and their face-to-face interaction with their Fort Drum and other local counterparts.
"(It's) much more beneficial because (we can build on) the relationship we have with Fort Drum and train face to face instead of meeting in the face of a disaster," he said.
Plummer added that the training event also allowed local and Fort Drum 911 call center operators to practice their communication with each other.
"I think the training went very well," he said. "It was a great opportunity, we got great results and there were a few corrective actions. That's why we drill -- to find problems."