Area emergency crews will soon gain valuable experience on what to expect from a local mass casualty incident through a training event set to take place in Holbrook next week.
The timing of the session, which began planning in early March, ironically follows the active shooting at a Richmond, Va., Greyhound bus station on March 31, and three weeks after the terrorist bombings at civilian transport hubs in Brussels, Belgium.
The I-40 Chiefs Association will host the simulated mass casualty event to help with communications, interoperability, triage and incident command between local first responder agencies.
Holbrook Fire Chief Cary Simpson, who heads the group, describes the planned scenario.
“Our plan is to start the day with a safety briefing, drill, then drill critique. The Holbrook Fire Department will run incident command for the scenario, which will be represented as a school bus crash in Holbrook, with students from the Holbrook School District Drama Class. We will utilize the incident command system. Sectors will be set up and we hope to have multiple EMS agencies in play for multiple patients. Holbrook schools will be involved with the students and act as the liaison for parents,” the chief explained.
The exercise will help the response teams know what works and identify areas for improvement.
At the beginning of this year, the Navajo County Public Health and Emergency Management teams held a similar functional exercise designed to test the coordination of the county’s public health and all hazard emergency operations teams.
In the event of an epidemic in the county, the public health preparedness team would activate the emergency operation center, and coordinate the ordering and delivering of medications to points of distribution, while the emergency management team would assist public health in providing resources to relieve the initial responders. The exercise tested emergency operations coordination and countermeasure dispensing.
Agencies invited to attend the Holbrook training session include the Joseph City Fire District, Winslow Fire Department, Action Medical, Holbrook Fire Department, Holbrook EMS, Sun Valley Fire District, Puerco Valley Fire District, Taylor-Snowflake Ambulance, Holbrook Police Department, Joseph City Fire District CERT Team, Navajo County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch, Guardian Air, Aero Care and the Holbrook Unified School District.
“This will be a great opportunity to get to know each other and how others operate,” said Simpson.
The event will take place from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 16, at the Holbrook Fire Training Grounds and the Holbrook Airport.
