MILLVILLE -- The city
fire department responded to a call Saturday afternoon concerning two
workers injured in a water tower.
Modeled after a real
situation that occurred in Florida, the department responded by gathering
all the necessary information from the water company and putting men and
equipment in place to make a rescue attempt of the two workers inside the
2 million gallon tank, 140 feet from the ground.
The
big difference of course was that the water tower was about 8 inches off
the ground. It was one of the models in the fictitious table top city of
Abbottville.
And while all of the
communications and strategic planning was real, the firefighters never
left the second floor of the station on Buck Street.
What they did do was
respond in the way they would in an actual situation, using matchbox cars
to simulate driving to the scene and various hats and vests of different
agencies and media outlets that would also arrive at the scene. There was
the state police, the Haz-Mat team, the tactical rescue team, a reporter
from the local newspaper and a representative from Abbottville Water
Company.
Part of a two-day
training course that culminated Sunday afternoon, the tabletop Abbottville
and instructor Ronald Richards of Command School, Inc., were brought in to
present a training program geared toward the management of fire calls and
emergency procedures.
"This puts the
realism into training, because we are simulating real-life
situations," said Battalion Chief Ric Kuhns, training coordinator for
the Millville Fire Department.
The total cost of the
program ran close to $4,000, an investment Kuhns said is well worth the
expenditure. He has been working on scheduling the program, which is
performed in fire departments nationwide, for the past four years.
Lt. Ric Tucker said
what makes the training valuable is the focus on organization.
"We have guys who
are very skilled at the task level and do drills all the time to reinforce
that," Tucker said. "But a program like this works on the
organization and management side of things and gives an appreciation for
what commanding officers are doing."
To add to the realism
of the simulations, firefighters from Bridgeton and Vineland paid a visit
as well as rescue squad personnel and police officers.
In addition to the
water tower rescue, the firefighters responded to a fire on High Street,
an apartment fire and a trench collapse. Sunday involved a complexity of
scenarios involving larger scale disasters involving terrorism and
industrial fires.
"We are here
basically to give the fire department and emergency response an
opportunity to train for how they will manage an emergency situation,
whether that's a small apartment fire, a terrorist emergency or a fire
with many casualties," Richards said.
Or as in one of
Saturday's examples, two workers injured and trapped inside a water tower.
Matthew
Ralph can be e-mailed at mralph@sjnewsco.com
Chief Editor's note:
The instructor was Ron Richards of
Command School Inc. (www.commandschool.com)
Ron did a great job conveying ideas, procedures and added realism to each
scenario.
Daily Journal
article:
Small-scale
model prepares firefighters for large disaster - Daily Journal (PDF)
