Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Results are in and the report finalized, giving a recent emergency training session on the campus of the Northern Maine Community College high marks for preparedness. “Part of the program is the after-action report – how everything went. It went real well,” said Vern Ouellette, exercise coordinator.
On Sept. 20, drills were held at NMCC with volunteers/actors assisting local, county and state emergency personnel in training sessions designed to build skills needed when responding to various scenarios.
The early morning session involved two ‘terrorists,’ played by volunteers, being apprehended at NMCC. The Presque Isle Police Department took the lead on the case, assisted by various other law enforcement agencies, including the Maine State Police, Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office, Border Patrol and Maine Warden Service.
The second case involved a Hazmat situation involving chemicals and students on a school bus. The Presque Isle Fire Department took the lead, assisted by Crown Ambulance Service, the Ashland Fire Department, Caribou Fire Department, and personnel from the Maine Emergency Management Agency and Department of Environmental Protection. Members of the local American Red Cross branch were also on hand.
Upon arrival at the ‘scene,’ firefighters hosed down the victims before moving in closure to evaluate the situation. Victims were moved to the decontamination area based on severity of their injuries, then transported to The Aroostook Medical Center for ‘treatment.’
“It was an excellent training session for everybody. It had a real spin of realism to it,” said George Howe, director of the Presque Isle Emergency Management Office.
Howe said the more multiple agencies work together, the more comfortable they’ll get working together in real life.
“The Red Cross, volunteers, police, forestry service, fire departments, DEP, ambulance, Aroostook EMS – it was a team effort,” said Howe. “Even the SWAT team they put together for the police department was multi-agency.”
Howe felt things went well.
“Things went fairly strong across the board. The hard thing to deal with in exercises is simulated time frames. Actual emergency response times would vary for travel time and other factors,” said Howe, noting another realism would involve “who’s out on vacation, who’s available for training.”
The exercise provided a good opportunity for the various agencies to gather at one location to learn to work together.
“Being familiar working with other agencies and being comfortable doing that makes it easier for everybody. The hard realism is some people would die in situations like that, especially if dangerous chemicals were involved.”
Overall, Howe was pleased with the outcome.
“It was an excellent situation. It opened our eye to what could happen. Every scenario was different,” said Howe.
Ouellette was also pleased with the training session and all those who made it a success.
“One highlight identified in our report was TAMC’s role – it was well-done. The hospital went above and beyond what we expected of them. They were highlighted in our report,” he said.
The session didn’t go without a few hitches, according to Ouellette.
“There were minor thinks like communication issues that always arise. We’re working to be better prepared in the future,” he said.
Overall, Ouellette was pleased with how the teams worked together on the project.
Ouellette identified one issue that will need to be addressed.
“How we do rapid assessment of an incident. That’s one thing the state picked up on in evaluating. We’re working to improve our rapid assessment,” said Ouellette.
Organizers also hoped to the session would help them learn ways to lessen the financial impact of responding to such situations.
“We want to look at ways to lessen the financial impact to the community, county and state; we also want to improve our rapid intervention methods,” he said.
Ouellette said the event also served as a “good training opportunity for law enforcement.”
“Working as a team was a great thing for those participating. We just have to iron out a few details,” said Ouellette. “Such exercises are huge.”
In the future, Ouellette said organizers are considering breaking training sessions down into smaller drills.
“We’ll try to spread things to other communities,” said Ouellette. “It’s all about training and trying out our capabilities.”
Howe said the drill provided participants with a great learning opportunity.
“Everybody came out of it pleased. Even if hitches occurred in certain areas, the learning part made it all worthwhile,” said Howe.
