Imlay City’s Mayor Pro-Tem is pleased by how well a full scale exercise simulation of a hazardous waste train derailment went this past Saturday.
Ted Lee Sadler shared in a press release that the event’s purpose was to test responders’ training in an out-of-the-ordinary situation, and how well agencies could integrate themselves during a crisis. The Saturday event saw over 100 members from 14 agencies participate, including the Imlay City Fire and Police Departments, Lapeer County EMS, firefighters from Attica, Almont, Burlington, Elba, and Goodland Townships, the Lapeer County Sheriff Department, CN Railroad Police and HAZMAT Response Teams, Lapeer County Health Department, Salvation Army and Imlay City Schools. The parking lot behind the IC Middle School was transformed into a ”hot zone” complete with a HAZMAT training trailer, as provided by CN Canadian Northern Railroad, with a smoke machine wafting a large simulated white vapor plume for effect.
Training effectively started at 9:00 a.m. on September 28, with successive teams of police, fire and EMS personnel arriving at the school’s “accident scene” to find a variety of injuries and symptoms, as portrayed by volunteering high school students. Fully suited and geared men and women could be seen moving into and out of the scene, testing all the equipment and systems available, including loud piercing alarms hanging on the firefighters’ coats alerting them to the presence of noxious gasses.
Protocol of bringing ‘victims’ out of the hot-zone included a large arc spray of water to ‘de-con’ the patients and cleanse them of contaminants, then moving them to a triage area to be treated for immediate needs, as overseen by EMS directors and a Lapeer County Health Department evaluator, and finally full gurney set and loaded up for transport. Out of caution, none of the ambulances at the training actually ran anywhere from the scene.
Lunch was provided by the Salvation Army’s Mobile Canteen.
