CLEARFIELD – It could happen at any moment.
A group gathers for an ordinary meeting, and suddenly, people begin to fall ill.
Several are nauseous, with some actually vomiting. Others are having difficulty standing up. Still more are injured because of falls and inadvertent shoves that came in the confusion of the rapid onset of the sickness.
Would Clearfield County’s emergency responders be prepared for such a scenario?
Firefighters, police officers and medical personnel tested their reaction Thursday night during a mock drill held at the Clearfield Area Middle School and the Clearfield Hospital.
The exercise started when a group of parents and students alike had gathered for a meeting regarding the proposed closing of a school. As tempers flared at the simulated event, many of those there began to feel queasy.
The symptoms were fake, but they could have just as easily been real.
Before such an event happens for real, Agosti Fire Safety Services of Kersey was called in to see, in real time, how such an emergency would be handled.
For the drill, the first emergency personnel on the scene were police officers. They were called after one man became irate in the meeting and was subsequently thrown out.
As Lawrence Township Police Officer Julie Wehler spoke with the man to assess the situation, his family exited the school, complaining of nausea and other symptoms.
Wehler questioned the man’s family, with two girls complaining that they were vomiting and had pale faces.
An ambulance was called, and not long after about a dozen more victims were found inside the school’s gymnasium. All were at the meeting, and all said they ate the powdered doughnuts.
Many of those participating in the drill reported eating the same type of food, but the source of the phony illness could not be pinpointed at the time of the incident. What was known at the time was that people exhibited flu-like symptoms, complaining of nausea, dizziness and other problems.
Tom Collins, incident commander, said there was one universal fact for those who were ill.
“Basically, the only common factor between all of the patients is that they ate the same type of food,” Collins said.
Lawrence Township Police Officer Mike Spencer was also dispatched to the scene and discovered that there were two people in the girls’ locker room. Lawrence Township Fire Co. No. 1 responded with two volunteers donning protective gear to test the air in the school for harmful substances. They made quick work of ruling out any air quality issues, evacuating the final two victims evacuated from the building.
Although the drill was fake, those who responded Thursday night treated the scene as if the emergency was genuine.
The next step is the critique. The entire situation will be sized up for everything from response times to how specific challenges were handled.
“It’s difficult to gauge how things go,” Collins said, noting that he saw areas that were in need of work.
“We had some communications difficulties with fire, police and EMS.”
Collins said he is hopeful that the drill will provide Clearfield County the opportunity to resolve any potential issues before a real emergency arises.
“We’ve had some mass casualty incidents this year, and it is nice to be able to do something without the real-world pressure,” Collins said. He added that responders have an extra opportunity to examine the thought process that goes into decision-making during mock events such as the one at the middle school.
The actors taking part were taken to Clearfield Hospital for decontamination and treatment of their injuries, and Dennis Lloyd, director of materials management for Clearfield Hospital, said he thought the drill went well.
“We’re learning that we are, I think, further ahead than we thought we would be.”
Lloyd said Clearfield Hospital got involved because of government requirements that they be prepared to handle emergencies such as pandemics or nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
He said such preparedness is underscored by the area’s close proximity to Interstate 80 and the possibility of a large-scale incident such as the one staged Thursday.
Hospital staffers jumped into action, putting a call tree into effect to ensure proper staffing and setting up a decontamination area outside of the hospital.
The Clearfield County Emergency Management Agency will review the response in the coming days and weeks, making changes and alterations as needed.