| Testing their readiness
Oldham emergency teams look for holes in their plans
By Melissa Gagliardi
mgagliardi@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
When fire alarms began blaring at Mary Bailey's apartment last week, she remained calm and continued watching Jeopardy on television. She knew emergency workers would be there soon enough.
It took a little longer than Bailey expected, but eventually two firefighters wearing oxygen masks came crawling into her apartment and wheeled her outside, where she was carried down a hill to a waiting ambulance.
Bailey, 85, was calm because she knew the smoke, alarms and her trip to the ambulance were part of a drill designed to simulate a lightening strike to her building in La Grange and give emergency workers valuable training.
Tim McAdoo helped plan the event. He's the administrator for The Oaks, an assisted-living facility with 24 apartments, and The Richwood, a skilled nursing facility with up to 120 residents. He said he wanted local emergency agencies to get familiar with the facilities, especially because so many of the residents are bedridden or in wheelchairs.
Also, oxygen tanks in some rooms add extra risk in the case of a fire.
McAdoo said he was impressed with the effort involved in the training exercise, carried out by La Grange Fire and Rescue, the Ballardsville Fire Department and Oldham County EMS.
"They've really gone the extra mile on this," McAdoo said. "It makes a world of difference if everyone's on board and knows what to do. There's no question it saves lives."
Bailey said she feels safer knowing that local emergency workers are now so familiar with her home.
While many of the residents simply observed the flurry of activity around them, Bailey took part in the training, pretending to be a "screaming, 50-year-old victim with apparent trauma," according to a note card the emergency workers used to assess her condition after they got her out of the building.
"We needed something like this," Bailey said. "These things are important. It's best to be prepared."
As alarms blared, firefighters scurried around the facility, checking rooms, exploring attics, all while crawling on their hands and knees and wearing their full gear and oxygen tanks. In addition to pulling Bailey from the building, there were a number of other "victims," including volunteers pretending to be unconscious and several dummies.
La Grange firefighter Bill Spicer took a quick break before re-entering the building to search for more victims.
"I didn't think it was going to be this hard," Spicer said as he wiped away sweat before putting his helmet back on.
Meanwhile, several firefighters sat in their T-shirts and shorts, sipping water under the direction of David Wilkinson, an EMT with Oldham County EMS. The firefighters had to be observed after overheating during the exercise, a real side effect to the mock emergency.
Wilkinson said the exercise was a rare opportunity for several agencies to train together. "If there's a mass casualty situation, we're going to rely on these guys. We need to work together."
Lance Vincent, director of Oldham County EMS, said the exercise pointed out that a true emergency would have needed more manpower. So back at his office, workers checked with agencies in surrounding cities to find out how much outside help would be available.
While 14 of Vincent's EMTs participated, six were out on real runs and couldn't make it -- as might be the case in a real emergency.
"We could have used more manpower," he said. "Any time you do something like this, you find holes in the system, but that's what it's for."
Reporter Melissa Gagliardi can be reached at (502) 582-4117.
PHOTO CREDIT:COURIER JOURNAL |
