As we’ve seen in recent days, accidents or violence involving a number of people require multiple emergency responders from various agencies to work together. With the growth of social media, news of a potential tragedy travels fast — and with it concern and a demand for answers from loved ones and others. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Jim Levulis was in the midst of a training exercise to prepare responders for a mass casualty and sent this report from North Adams.The drill starts like a real accident with police the first to arrive on scene. The scenario: a bus filled with high school students has flipped on its side after hitting a dump truck. Fire and EMS soon follow, assessing the students and removing the bus driver who has become trapped. The focus of this training, organized for 40 responders over the course of 18 months by the Northern Berkshire Emergency Planning Committee, is reunification. North Adams Ambulance Service Assistant Chief Amalio Jusino says they follow a national model that unfortunately has become a critical component because of active shooter incidents.
“We know how to respond to a motor vehicle crash,” Jusino said. “We know how to decon a hazardous material patient. We know how to transport patients to the hospital. Where we were failing though is if it’s a bus and we have 20 students who aren’t injured, how do we get that reunification to occur? Parents showing up. Vehicles showing up. How do we manage that scene?”
Triaging of patients is one of the first steps. Responders designate by color…red means critical, yellow — stable and green are considered walking wounded.
Jusino says the national standard for what constitutes a mass casualty incident, or MCI, is when the number of patients immediately taxes the number of available ambulances. He says that designation gives responders more leeway when treating victims, focusing care on the most critical and holding off on others.
“As soon as we declare that MCI early notification to the hospitals is key,” Jusino said. “They can call in staff and we start arriving with patients. It’s the same process nationally. I just saw some communication with the Orlando doctors and nurses during the recent shooting and they were literally calling in nurses at 3 o’clock in the morning. Some of them spoke and it was amazing. They were walking into this horrific scene, but that’s how that whole process works. We mirror that same thing in North Adams.”
One of the responders’ policies is relatively new — a Facebook post is made within 15 minutes of an incident. But Jusino and North Adams Police Sgt. James Burdick say social media is still the elephant in the room because there is no way for responders to fully get a grip on information coming from the scene. Police can set up a perimeter, but that only does so much. Jusino says communication is part of the answer.
“Working with schools and saying ‘If there is a bus incident, parents there is no value in rushing to the scene,’” Jusino explained. “It makes it very complex. When we have these reunification plans complete and we say a reunification point is going to be Drury High School for this group then hopefully some of the parents go there and heed those warnings.”
In this training, the uninjured students were accounted for and transported to the high school.
Since some people listen to police, fire and EMS scanners, Jusino says clear communication between responders can also be an effective way to inform the public. Another goal of the training is responders being able to sort out the chaos of such a scene and do their job. Sgt. Burdick says he’s had police officers and EMTs freeze up, especially those new to the job.
“This is how you give them a little bit of the taste so they know how to handle it when it’s a real deal,” Burdick said.
A chaplain was on scene at the training and would be in the event of a real accident to assist victims, but also to help de-stress responders.
