SIDNEY — Have you considered the natural or technological hazards that can affect your community? How would it impact you? What are the risks? What would you do to protect yourself and your family? What about your business? Where would you go for safety?
These are questions that emergency responders and planners ask every day to help keep our communities safe. Emergency responders train regularly so that they can keep their skill sets sharp to be effective in protecting the communities they serve. Emergency plans are exercised or tested on a regular basis to identify strengths and areas of improvement that can then be updated to ensure the needs of the communities are addressed.
Every year, Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC) are required to exercise their chemical emergency response plan, involving a transportation release or a release at a facility that produces, stores, or transports hazardous chemicals. On Friday, April 15, the Shelby County LEPC will partner with CSX Transportation to conduct their annual exercise with a focus on a local response to a simulated chemical release.
A key aspect in planning for a real life large-scale emergency is the establishment and maintaining of community partners. Partnering together for the exercise are many local entities and agencies as well as regional and state support resources. Trupointe Coop is graciously allowing the exercise to take place on their property. Other entities that have offered the use of their facilities, equipment, or personnel for the exercise are Wilson Health, the Northern Miami Valley Red Cross, and Connection Point Church of God. Wilson Health will be tasked with simulating decontamination of neighborhood evacuees, and triage of injuries. The Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association has placed a decontamination trailer at Wilson Health, and this exercise is an opportune time to examine its functionality. The Northern Miami Valley Red Cross and volunteers will establish a shelter at the Connection Point church. Volunteers from Lehman Catholic High School and Connection Point Church have offered their time to be participants in the exercise. Some will be demonstrating symptoms of injuries and contamination and will also help establish a shelter. The Ohio National Guard’s 52nd Civil Support Team which specializes in Hazmat monitoring will also be participating in the exercise.
Leading up to the exercise, CSX will conduct three days of training with area firefighters and other first responders on proper response techniques to incidents involving hazardous materials on trains. Using the CSX Safety Train, a mobile training facility, the railroad will provide hands-on safety training to local firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians and other first responders in partnership with the Firefighters Education and Training Foundation. Equipped with a rolling classroom and specialized railroad equipment, the Safety Train is designed to teach first responders how rail cars work and how to respond to incidents involving trains. Led by CSX hazardous materials specialists, the training provides first responders with the information they need to be safe around active railroads, unique safety features of modern rail tank cars and specialized techniques for responding to railroad incidents involving hazardous materials. Safety is CSX’s highest priority, and this training demonstrates CSX’s commitment to working with local first responders in teaching safe practices associated with railway and chemical transportation safety.
A busy week lies ahead for participants in this year’s trainings and exercise. Planning, training, exercising, and evaluating are elements in a continuous cycle for emergency responders and planners to be prepared to help keep our communities safe. What can you do to prepare yourself, family, business, and community in the event of a natural or chemical hazard? That will be the focus of the next article in this series. Be ready and be prepared.
