- Details
- Category: Past Issues
caption, pg. 1:
Practice Drill
A member of the Putnam Fire Department looks over the scene of the area-wide Mass Casualty Drill held in Putnam May 22. Ambulance corps and fire departments from the Quiet Corner took part in the training drill that tested skills should be a mass casualty occur. The scenario set up involved a school bus and two cars in a mock accident. More photos on page 6. Linda Lemmon photo.
captions, page 6, clockwise from top left: The practice accident scene
Tagging a "victim"
Backboards are lined up at the ready across the bottom of the "school bus."
Firefighters use an extrication device to try to get the "victim" out.
Pomfret Fire Department, left, gets ready to transport a "victim."
Randy Bowen, white shirt, checks out the scene.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
Should an accident with multiple casualties occur, local emergency medical services and fire departments are just that much more ready after the Mass Casualty Drill held May 22.
Putnam hosted a practice/training session near the former landfill. The mock accident involved a school bus and two cars.
"Victims" sat in the "school bus" turned on its side and each of the two cars contained two "victims." Randy Bowen, a lieutenant with the Putnam EMS, spent two or three months organizing the drill and about 40 emergency personnel took part.
Training were: Putnam Fire Department, Putnam EMS, East Putnam Fire Department, East Putnam Fire & Rescue, Pomfret EMS, Woodstock EMS and Killingly Brooklyn EMS.
"It's a great experience for all the agencies to work together," Bowen said. The impetus for the practice drill was the new SMART tag system, a statewide triage program. The system is a new way to tag and keep track of victims, Bowen said. "It expedites the process to care for and get victims out from the scene," Bowen said.
Priority 1 victims would be transported immediately. Priority 2 victims can wait and Priority 3 are the "walking wounded," Bowen added.
The "victims" were: Bethany Burke, Ashlee Burke, Jessica Phillips, Hillary Phillips, Chicago Rogers, Paul Bowen, Amanda Detorio, Beth Lestage and Chelsea Lawerence.
The best part of the drill was the fact that "there was such a good turnout," Bowen said. "Everyone who participated did a good job and we all worked well together," Bowen added.
East Putnam Fire Department members called the drill "very realistic." Putnam Fire Department members said the drill gave them lots of experience with different types of extrication.
Emergency personnel had a bus on its side to get victims out of as well as two cars, each holding two "victims," that were partially crushed by the bus. EMS personnel worked to assess each victim and put the appropriate tag on each while fire department members started cutting victims free, laying lines and keeping a watchful eye for possible fire.
Putnam Fire Marshal Normand Perron said the drill was a matter of coordination. "It went very well," he said.
Bowen said he hopes to make this an annual or biannual event.