Colebrook (NH) Sentinel - - By Lucie D. Fillion
On Tuesday evening, the Coös County Nursing Hospital in Stewartstown held a planned disaster drill with the Beecher Falls, Colebrook and Pittsburg fire departments responding.
The scenario portrayed was that a tractor accident at the visitor entrance spilled ammonium nitrate (used at the county farm), causing a vapor cloud. The departments had to react to the spill, which caused ³fatalities² and contaminated people, help those trapped inside, and decontaminate the victims.
Beecher Falls fire chief Steve Young was in charge of incident control. CCNH administrator Sue Collins communicated with the employees on the second and third floors, trying to keep careful track of the facility's 80 patients. The first floor could not be reached and victims were trapped inside. Two employees were sent to the recycling center, used as a staging area in case of a real emergency.
The emergency call was received by the fire departments at 5:30 p.m. CCNH maintenance was then called, and Ms. Collins was notified. She said she was impressed with the reactions and level-headedness of her employees. "It's just people using good judgment," Ms. Collins said. She praised a second-floor nurse who reacted by placing blankets and sheets at the top of the stairs in preparation for patient evacuation, and dressed in a gown and face mask to prevent contamination. "The girls handled things well," Chief Young said of the nurses.
Ms. Collins was also happy with the fire department: "We were really impressed with their reaction and their part in the drill." She said it was an overwhelming experience, but it revealed the manpower needed to contain such a situation and to evacuate the building.
The Beecher Falls Volunteer Fire Department had an opportunity to use its recent training for a new hazardous material decontamination unit. Due to the Vermont Homeland Security Act, the department was entrusted with the decon unit and is expected to respond statewide if a need arises.
The department acquired the equipment during the last six months, and received the trailer to hold it all this past month. The department just received a $78,000 grant, and used some of it to buy a Ford 550 chassis as the trailer's prime mover.
There are four levels of training: awareness, operations, decontamination, and technician. Twelve Beecher Falls and two Pittsburg firemen have completed the first three steps; two of those 14 are expected to attend September classes to be certified as technicians.
The drill went smoothly, with the firemen setting up the decon unit and explaining to the mock victims, all involved in the water cleansing process. Chemist Bill Allen researched the chemical and found the best way to remove it from the victims. The decon unit was not set up as extensively as it would have been for the real thing, but the firemen had the idea of what it involved. "We learned a lot. It went very good. The guys worked hardgoing through all the steps," second assistance chief Harland Crawford said. Different suits are used for different chemicals, and two firemen were outfitted in blue plastic suits to help the victims through the washes. The disaster drill encompasses all phases of dealing with hazardous materials. "It's just what we learned that was used in a practical exercise," Mr. Crawford said.
After the drill, all involved debriefed over dinner. The drill had been discussed for a year and planned since March; two drills per year are required for the nursing home to be life-safety certified. These are normally smaller, internal disasters, so this was the first of its scale. About 60 firemen and 40 volunteers, including a CCNH resident and a reporter, were involved.
With the residents helpless and reliant on the firemen, the hazmat contamination made the experience more overwhelming, Chief Young said. It was instrumental for the firemen to use their hazmat training before it was really needed. Chief Young hoped that all involved saw how important communication is an event like this; communication is still an issue that needs to be addressed, he said.
The firemen said they should have done a primary search to assess the situation then a more intense, secondary search. There were too many men committed to the search and some ran out of air, Chief Young said. Colebrook fire chief Phil Ducret said that the original communication was good, but when the drill became overwhelming, communication deteriorated.
Some of the victims were not found. The CCNH staff members saw that they needed better communications also and should establish an accountability system. Since the hazmat decon process takes an extended period of time to complete, the firemen said that fire manuals with floor plans and fire alarm locations would make the initial discovery process quicker.
Firemen from the three fire departments agreed that they worked well together, but that they still need to streamline reactions. They said this was a beneficial drill and helped them see what would be involved if the real thing happened.
By permission of the
Colebrook News and Sentinel