First responders practice a mass casualty plane crash
“Broken bones and impalements over here, head wounds you line up here,” called out one of the “moulage” specialists applying cuts, glass shards and compound fractures to other volunteers at a drill designed to prepare first responders for a commercial aircraft crash at the Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport. The drill took place on Wednesday. April 18. This type of training is mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration and must be conducted at least once every three years to evaluate the operational readiness of the emergency responders.
“With the recent expansion of the airport and terminals at the STS, we are seeing an increase in call volumes to the airport. As responders, it’s our duty to be prepared for any type of emergency, no matter how big or small; prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” said Cyndi Foreman, public information officer for Rincon Valley & Windsor Fire said in a statement. “Emergency responders regularly train for all aspects of aircraft emergencies such as, extrication and rescue, mass casualty, aircraft fire and hazard mitigation.”
The drill was designed to simulate a commercial aircraft which crashed on landing, and community volunteers, many of them Windsor High School students, were made up as victims. First responders were told to focus on passenger rescue, emergency medical intervention and fire suppression and K-9 units searched for victims that had been flung far from the aircraft. “Patients” were triaged, evacuated in ambulances and both Henry One and the REACH helicopter landed and took away critical victims.
“Exercises like the one we are conducting affirm the RVFPD’s commitment to train like lives depend on it, because they do,” Rincon Valley & Windsor Fire Chief Mark Heine said in a statement. “We want to ensure that we are prepared to protect our community as well as visitors to our beautiful county. Having a commercial airport in our jurisdiction is a big responsibility and the public at large should feel safe in knowing that their first responders know how to deal with an aircraft emergency, whatever the scale.”
Agencies involved in Wednesday’s drill included: Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport, Rincon Valley Fire, Windsor Fire, Healdsburg Fire, Forestville Fire, Santa Rosa Fire, CAL FIRE, Red Cross, Sonoma County Fire & Emergency Services, Sonoma Life Support, Bell’s Ambulance, Coastal Valley EMS, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, Reach, REDCOM and the Oakland USAR Task Force-4 K-9 teams.
