FORT BENNING, Ga., (March 23 2016) -- "It's one of those things that doesn't happen often, but when it does it can have a catastrophic outcome," said Capt. Brad Wade of Fort Benning Fire Station 2.
Fort Benning and Columbus emergency response organizations worked together during an emergency preparedness exercise March 15 to ensure that if something catastrophic does happen, they will be ready.
The day-long exercise simulated a large-scale tornado touching down at the old hospital, resulting in casualties and injuries.
"The purpose of the full scale exercise was to reveal all current plans to ensure that we, the installation, can adequately respond to these types of incidents," said Terry Wydra, installation emergency manager.
Every major organization on Fort Benning as well as organizations from the community, such as Midtown Medical Center and the National Weather Service, took part in the exercise.
"One of the main training objectives was to exercise what we call our mutual aid agreements that we have with the local community, as in if something happens we respond to help them, and vice versa," said Wydra.
David Eber, assistant chief of operations and incident commander for the exercise, said that exercises such as this help firefighters keep their search and rescue skills in confined spaces or structural collapses sharp.
"The jobs these guys do are really complex and technical, and they don't get a lot of real world experience, so we don't want to wait until something happens. Every quarter we do some sort of technical rescue in a confined space or a structural collapse so the guys can keep their skills up," said Eber.
The exercise helped identify gaps or shortcomings, so that a corrective action plan can be put in place, said Wydra.
Full-scale exercises are conducted once a year.
Training on a smaller scale is conducted regularly throughout the year.
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