In May over 100 Rio Hondo College students tested their skills as firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMT), nurses and theatre actors as part of an emergency drill.
For the past three years the college, in Whittier California, has held annual drills that have grown in size, scope and complexity. The inaugural combined emergency drill was a capstone venture between the nursing and public safety departments (including the administration of justice, police and fire academies and the emergency medical technician programs) that had been exercising their respective students in separate drills. Since then, through collaboration with local police departments and ambulance companies, the emergency drill has grown to include four major events.
This year’s emergency drill was built around an active shooter scenario. Planning for the emergency drill started one year ago right after the completion of the 2014 emergency drill. Emphasis in the emergency drills is placed on evaluating critical skills learned in the college’s public safety and nursing programs as well as validating the link between education and real world careers. In order to introduce the law enforcement component to the active shooter scenario, the Huntington Park Police Department participated, wanting to validate many of their own operational plans in an active shooter scenario.
Also participating were CARE and Cole-Schaefer Ambulance companies. As long-time partners of the college, their participation in the drill gave EMT students exposure to preparing and transporting wounded victims to a hospital.
Planning for the drill included blending the various disciplines into a coherent emergency drill that replicated as much of a real-world response as possible. Student participants included cadets from the Public Safety’s Fire Academy, students from the EMT program and Nursing program and actors from the Theater Arts program. Agency participants included police officers, police explorers and community officers, firefighters, and EMT/paramedics from the ambulance service companies. College participants included the academic deans, faculty and staff that served as observers and safety officers throughout every portion of the emergency drill. The college’s Facility Services division managed the event security, as the drill affected major portions of the campus.
The college held two emergency drills on May 8th that followed a basic outline of an active shooter on the north end of the campus. The shooter fired shots that caused one victim to crash a vehicle, trapping several victims inside the damaged vehicle. The shooter then ran into a building complex and took additional hostages. Once the Huntington Park police officers cleared the area around the crashed vehicle, Fire Academy cadets used vehicle extrication techniques to remove the injured students. EMT students then moved the wounded to a designated triage station where they assisted nursing students in assessing the wounded for transportation to the college’s Roadrunner Hospital – the Nursing program’s simulation training room that replicated a hospital emergency room. Once victims entered the hospital, they received treatment by the nursing students. For specific victims, mannequins were substituted in that replicated the injuries for further treatment – a procedure necessary to replicate the administration of medical services and monitoring of patients and associated equipment found in an emergency room.
The victims, played by the Theatre Arts students, had gunshot wounds and lacerations and included a mentally distressed person and a pregnant woman that gave birth in the hospital.
The Huntington Park Police Department responded with their SWAT team, securing the affected area before moving in officers to rescue victims and provide a secure perimeter for other emergency responders. The shooter took a hostage and barricaded himself in a building. Police negotiators carried on a dialogue with the shooter until the situation was resolved. Each distinct scenario had an event coordinator with one overall exercise coordinator overseeing the entire emergency drill.