MORGANTOWN — A bomb didn’t go off in a PRT car. An active shooter didn’t open up on the PRT platform at Towers. Bombs weren’t being made in a room at Fieldcrest Hall.
But on Wednesday emergency crews responded like all of those deadly events happened during a multi-agency field exercise.
“We’ve reached this point in the training process where we actually want to get our hands in some situations that we might be called upon in the future,” Captain Danny Camden, of the WVU Police Department, said.
The exercise started with a report of a bombing in a PRT car which left a passing PRT car with several wounded needing to be extracted and treated. Camden, the exercise director, said the scenario would give rescuers, including the Morgantown Fire Department, a chance to practice an elevated high angle extraction
“We’re going to be using ropes and lowering systems, baskets and stokes baskets, things like that, to lower victims off the guideway up there,” Morgantown Fire Chief Mark Caravasos said. “It ought to be a good day.”
Some of the patients were mannequins while others were actors wearing makeup to simulate injuries. Melissa Head, a 24-year-old graduate student and intern at the Monongalia County Health Department, was a victim in one of the PRT cars. She had makeup depicting scrapes, cuts and was covered in soot from the explosion. Each patient had different injuries and the seriousness of their injuries varied.
It wasn’t just EMS, police and firefighters who participated in Wednesday’s exercise.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to practice, very similarly to the security and police and EMS, the things that we need to do in making sure that media, the public, the campus community are informed and up to date on information as we get it when something like this happens,” WVU Spokesperson April Kaull said.
Other WVU departments such as the president’s office, parking and transportation office and facilities management were also involved in the drill. WVU also sent out a text alert through its alert system letting people know about the exercise, so those who didn’t receive it will know they aren’t signed up and can do so.
“This is all hands on deck,” Kaull said.
The MCHD set up a community reception center, Joe Klass, threat preparedness specialist, said. In events where radiological exposure is a possibility, one of the health department’s roles is to set up the center and assess those who think they may have been exposed, then treat them or direct them to the proper help.
Federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Transportation Security Administration, also participated in the exercise.
Assistant Special Agent in Charge L. C. Cheeks Jr., said he was attending with some bomb technicians in an advisory role. Training like this is important as mass casualty incidents become more and more common around the country, he said.
“A lot of time in law enforcement with the exception of agencies who specialize in this a lot of local law enforcement other than their bomb technicians actually do not ever get a chance to do any training in this and incidents such as these can be very, very dangerous,” Cheeks said.
