First Responders Prepare For Worst

It is always a good idea to be prepared in the case of an emergency and the Colton Fire Department (CFD) recently took steps to make sure that their staff members are prepared in the case of a disaster. Due to the number of bus crashes that have been occurring lately, the CFD held a training session that stimulated a traumatic bus crash with the help of students from Summit Career College acting as the victims of crash. Twenty first-responders from the Colton and Loma Linda Fire Departments took part in the training session. There were 20 students who participated in the training session and wore tags around their necks to identify what kind of injuries they had. Tom DeBellis, Captain/P.I.O of the CFD, said the training is an annual event held for the the past 15 years. The training session focuses on various emergencies that may occur in the community. Some past training sessions have included a chlorine leak at a pool, a gas leak, and a bomb threat. The purpose of the session was to create a "coordinated chaos" in which responders had to familiarize themselves with how to best respond to a traumatic event that involves multiple people with a wide variety of injuries. Some injuries that students had were multiple broken bones, cuts, lacerations, and some students even wore tags that pronounced them as dead. DeBellis stated that it was a good exercise in working with communication centers and communicating with them to transport patients to appropriate hospitals and centers depending on the scope and severity of their injuries. The preparation for the event took an hour and the actual event took two hours at the training grounds at the CFD. DeBellis said, “The students that took part in the exercise had fun. When they were in the morgue their part was done and they took pictures and videos and watched their friends as they were being helped.” At the end of the day, first responders walked away knowing they have the skills and training needed to help save lives after going through a mock-disaster working with students and communication centers.