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 The Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall passes through downtown Wapakoneta Wednesday, September 1. Staff photo/William Laney By CARLA MEYER
Staff Writer
For 45 minutes, the roar of motorcycles could be heard passing under an American flag hanging from two ladder trucks. For 45 minutes, area residents gathered in the shadow of the Auglaize County Courthouse and Wapakoneta Fire Station waved and clapped as motorcyclists rode by.
The smiles and waves turned into clapping and cheers as the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall passed down Willipie Street on its way to Custenborder Field in Sidney where it was greeted by a field of American flags.
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Monday, 22 June 2009 |
 Firefighters and members of the Auglaize County Community Emergency Response Team reach into the bus to treat passengers. The full-scale exercise brought emergency personnel from across Auglaize and Logan counties together to respond to a bus crash, chemical spill and a bombing all in one morning. Staff photo/Matt Nichols By MATT NICHOLS
Staff Writer
SANTA FE — The scene was a nightmare.
An overturned school bus rests in a secluded farm field after striking a truck carrying farm chemicals.
Emergency personnel from across the Auglaize County rush to the wreckage, pulling the burned and bloodied bodies of high school students from the windows — many who are unconscious and critically injured.
HAZMAT personnel are called in to deal with the airborne chemicals as workers worked to get a handle on the scene. Then word comes that an explosion has been reported in an area school — Indian Lake High School in Logan County. Forces must now be properly split to handle the second tragedy.
Every move and every decision by emergency personnel proves vital to the lives of several area teens who are serious injured.
The disastrous event was only a test, but for county emergency workers, the scene was a realistic simulation to ensure they do not panic should an actual event befall the region.
The Auglaize County Local Emergency Planning Commission (LEPC) and Emergency Management Agency (EMA) conducted their full-scale exercise Saturday morning, in Clay Township.
Dozens of personnel from Auglaize and Logan county’s emergency teams used the event — which included a bus accident, chemical spill and school bombing — as training for a real-life situation.
Auglaize County EMA Director Troy Anderson said the event is scheduled every four years in the county.
“We’re required by the state of Ohio to conduct these full-scale exercises,” Anderson said. “We test every emergency response in the county.”
Anderson and the St. Marys School system worked on the script for the event, which began with a school bus with band students headed to a scrimmage football game. While in transit, a rash environmental activist group detonates a bomb on the bus, sending it out of control and into a chemical truck before rolling over.
Within minutes, the group detonates a bomb at Indian Lake High School, seriously injuring students there as well.
If it really occurred, the event would be a devastating tragedy, but the factors involved in the disaster created a perfect storm, requiring the need of every emergency team in the county.
Taking part in Saturday’s exercise was members of the Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office, St. Johns, Uniopolis, Wayne Township, Minster and Wapakoneta fire departments, Auglaize County Job and Family Services, St. Marys School, the Auglaize County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the Auglaize County Red Cross, Salvation Army, Lima Memorial Health System, Joint Township District Memorial Hospital and the Ohio EMA among others.
All those members gathered at A.G. Boogher & Son in Santa Fe on Saturday when the simulated call came through. The remote area of the incident was a perfect setting, Anderson said.
“This is a dead zone for cell phones and radio, so we’ve got the amateur radio operators out here helping boost our signal powers,” Anderson said.
Members of CERT were first to arrive to the school bus wreckage, and after peering through the windows, surveyed the enormity of the incident. The team improvised on the spot, climbing through the windows and unbolting the seats to create makeshift backboards, as they carried the seriously wounded out.
St. Johns Fire Department arrived on the scene moments later, and other agencies soon arrived with mutual assistance, before the school bomb was reported.
Thought completely staged, the bodies of the students, complete with realistic burns and lacerations laid around the decimated bus with emergency crews tending to their needs.
Most response teams were kept in the dark about the details of the incident until the first call came in. One of those response teams was the Auglaize County Red Cross.
Just before it began, Red Cross Executive Director DaNeen Bryan said Saturday’s exercise was the first for the Red Cross, and said she looked forward to how the teams could come together.
“We’ll have a great opportunity to do some reflection afterwards and see how everything operates,” Bryan said. “We’ll get to see how smooth it goes and how we can work out some of the bugs.”
Wapakoneta Fire Chief Kendall Krites acted as the public information officer in Saturday’s scenario. He echoed Bryan’s thoughts, saying the exercise gave teams the chance to analyze areas where they may be lacking.
“It’s all coordination and communication,” Krites said. “You learn what goes right, and a lot of times you learn what didn’t go so well, so you can build upon it and make it better when you have a real emergency.”
When the event concluded, Anderson said despite a few issues, he was pleased with how well everyone worked together in the exercise.
“We had some minor glitches but that can be expected,” Anderson said. “But no one was at a loss, and everyone participated and worked together well.”
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 June 2009 )
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