Responders train for dirty bomb

Vicki Hood | Guernsey Gazette
Posted 6/6/18

GUERNSEY — The title sounds like a caper you might see on Masterpiece Theater or Discover ID. But the “Guernsey Dirty Bomb Incident” was really a full-scale exercise held last week in Guernsey to give first responders a chance to find out just what it would require of them should it ever occur.

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Responders train for dirty bomb

Posted

GUERNSEY — The title sounds like a caper you might see on Masterpiece Theater or Discover ID.  But the “Guernsey Dirty Bomb Incident” was really a full-scale exercise held last week in Guernsey to give first responders a chance to find out just what it would require of them should it ever occur.  
Sponsored by Platte County Emergency Management, participants from all over the region were invited to participate in last Wednesday’s exercise.  Because it was held on a weekday, many of the departments with volunteers had a limited number of participants but as Platte County Emergency Management Chief and exercise controller Terry Alexander told those gathered, “Things don’t happen when they’re always convenient.  We have to be ready any day of the week.”  
Participants were not made aware of any details of the specific problem at the scene until it was actually “go time” to make response times and actions as real as possible even though it was a training exercise.
To avoid panic or concern by the public, particularly in Guernsey where the “incident” happened, a reverse 911 was made to let residents know an exercise would be occurring Wednesday beginning around 9:30 a.m.  Participants were also required to begin any radio transmission with the words “exercise, exercise, exercise” to let anyone monitoring emergency response channels that it was not an actual incident or emergency.  
Participants met at the Guernsey District Volunteer Fire Hall on the east side of Guernsey for a pre-incident briefing but no specific incidnet details were shared at that time.  
Camp Guernsey’s Art Lowther and Platte County Public Health’s Dutch Alexander served as the primary planners of the entire scenario and Alexander gave the primary initial briefing.  Participants were told that safety was the priority of the day and that organizers wanted those participating to carry everything out in as real or normal a way as they might if it were an actual call.  

They were also given a weather report including overall conditions including air temperature, wind speed and direction.  A team of evaluators and observers were also on scene to critique the response start to finish but Stevenson told the responders “the day is not about pass/fail.  We want to find out where our strengths and weaknesses are so that we can fix the areas in which we are lacking.”
Once the initial briefings were completed, a mock 911 call was made by Guernsey resident Rick Fawcett  who reported “seeing smoke and hearing a loud bang in the direction of the school.”  Fawcett is from Platte CERT and served as an evaluator at the exercise.  
Emergency personnel who  would respond from other areas such as Wheatland or outlying communities or even homes were required to wait to respond to the scene until the time had passed it would normally take for the to travel to an actual incident at the school in Guernsey.  
Guernsey police officer Terry Vandam was one of the first ones to the school once the 911 call was dispatched.    
Before long, Emergency Medical Technicians from Banner Health as well as firemen from several communities began to assess the scene they encountered at the west side of the Guernsey High School.  
Prosthetic body parts and pieces of a broken plastic container lay on the lawn in front of the west gymnasium. A volunteer victim lay on the ground, his lower leg made up to appear to have an open fracture. Nearby another male victim wandered around, appearing to be very confused and continually asking what had happened to his friend, saying he could not find him.  
A mother with two daughters had been contaminated by the bomb explosion and additional victims were found in and around the school.  
In addition to Vandam (Guernsey Police) and Fawcett (Platte County CERT) local participants included Guernsey City Superintendent Mike Montgomery, Nathan Wilkins, Hartville Fire Department, Shane Clevenger Guernsey Fire Department, Chief Alan Baldy, Robbie Edmunds, and Miguel Sandoval of the Camp Guernsey Fire Department, and Mike Beard and Glen Suppes of Platte County School District 2. Platte County Sheriff Clyde Harris and Deputies Carlton Duncan and Will Kirlin responded as law enforcement. A total of 10 men, women and children volunteered to be victims for the exercise.
Exercise evaluators included personnel from Albany County EMA, Goshen County EMA, and Platte County CERT.  Observers came from the National Weather Service, Plains All-American Pipeline, and the RERT 7 Hazmat Team.
Platte County Commissioner Eric Johnston provided fiscal assistance. Members of the Red Cross covered the roles of evacuation assistance and public information officer.  
Technical expertise was provided by two members of the Wyoming Department of Health.