FORT SILL, Okla. (Nov. 2, 2017) -- For two days, Fort Sill was the site of a simulated massive chlorine spill as the post tested its annual hazardous materials (HazMat), and mass casualty response, Oct. 24-25.
During the full-scale exercise, five tanker railcars derailed at Macomb and Condon streets, and the subsequent chlorine cloud left two people dead, dozens injured, and post residents and workers sheltering in place until the gas dissipated.
Clint Langford, Fort Sill fire chief, said the installation has to be prepared for a catastrophic mass casualty event affecting several hundred people.
Any time there is a major incident in any jurisdiction, the local responders need to practice to mitigate the dangers, Langford said. "We have got to prepare for those types of incidents, just like we do our normal, everyday incidents."
All entities of the Directorate of Emergency Services (fire, police, emergency medical services) and virtually every directorate, brigade and tenant agency here participated like they would had this been a real event, said the fire chief.
"We are standing up the Emergency Operations Center and all assets on Fort Sill, and our surrounding communities are being used to facilitate this incident," Langford said.
Between 200 and 300 people participated in the exercise, including planners, role players, responders and more, he added. It took over one year of planning to create the exercise and its scenarios.
Meanwhile, people in the area such as residents or Soldiers at work were notified by the post's warning systems (social media, email, telephone, loud speaker) to shelter in place.
"We have to make the decision whether to evacuate or shelter in place," Langford explained. "Evacuation may actually place people in further harm by going outside."
When Fire and Emergency Services first arrives on scene it has incident priorities: life safety, incident stabilization, and property conservation, or the LIP principal, the fire chief said. "Our first priority is taking care of life."
First responders worked to remove the injured who were laying near the railroad tracks (the incident site or "hot zone"), to an area away from the spill, or a warm zone.
Because of the simulated chlorine, patients first had to be decontaminated with a fresh water spray from a firehose manned by firefighters.
"Once they (responders and victims) come out into our warm zone decontamination area, our job is to remove the hazardous materials to one, make them safer, but also to make it safe for other emergency responders to treat those victims," Langford said.
Firefighters triaged the role-playing victims who exhibited various wounds including severe burns and bleeding; were coughing, unconscious, emotionally distraught or in pain.
Before the exercise, volunteers including many Soldiers put on injury accessories to simulate realistic wounds, as well as wearing a placard that listed their injuries.
Emergency vehicles, including Kirk's EMS, transported "victims" to the three area civilian hospitals: Comanche County Medical Center, Public Health Service Indian Hospital, and Southwest Medical Center, Langford said.
Other agencies involved in the exercise included regional emergency response districts, which if needed can provide HazMat, incident management, and other teams, as directed by the state EOC, he said.
"Part of this event is to not only test our local response, but to activate that (state) system to see how well it can respond to this type of emergency," Langford said.
Early in the event, Langford said things were going typical for an exercise of this magnitude.
"When any incident involving a major catastrophic event kicks off, there is always a little bit of confusion and chaos until we can assess the situation and start throwing some of our resources at this event and mitigating the emergency."
Bobby Klein, Fort Sill assistant fire chief of operations, said HazMat response is something the department trains for regularly, and that he gained much from the exercise.
"I took away how many resources that an incident like this requires, and how the community can support one another in a large-scale incident."
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