Many respond to ‘disaster’ in Ruff Creek
Members of Jefferson Volunteer Fire Department remove a “victim” from beneath blocks of concrete during a training exercise Saturday at the Mining Technology and Training Center in Ruff Creek.
A “worker” trapped under twisted metal is freed by members of Waynesburg Volunteer Fire Department during a rescue training excercise Saturday in Ruff Creek.
Members of Jefferson Volunteer Fire Department, as part of a training exercise Saturday at the Mining Technology and Training Center in Ruff Creek, bore a hole into a slab of concrete to make room for a surveillance camera that can detect survivors.
RUFF CREEK – Large chunks of concrete and other debris prevented rescue workers from entering the bottom level of a parking garage under construction where seven “crew members” remained unaccounted for after a section of the garage collapsed.
In order to get inside, first responders had to free three other workers trapped outside underneath piles of construction material that came crashing through the site when some machinery hit a column and collapsed a section of the four-story garage.
That was the scenario presented to members of the Waynesburg and Jefferson volunteer fire departments, Greene and Washington county emergency management agencies and Pennsylvania Urban Search and Rescue Strike Team 1 when emergency calls went out at 7:30 a.m. Saturday at the Mining Technology and Training Center in Ruff Creek.
It was all part of a full-scale training exercise involving local, county and state agencies.
“This is invaluable training, and this facility here in Ruff Creek provides an ideal site to conduct something of this nature,” said Norman Auvil from the Special Deployment and Response Office of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
Ron Sicchitano, deputy director of the Washington County Department of Public Safety, was overseeing the “rescue” operations of three workers trapped outside the facility.
Members of Waynesburg Volunteer Fire Department had to use power saws to cut through sheets of metal before a trapped worker could be freed. Members of Southwest EMS stood ready to administer medical aid once the worker was removed.
The injured were mannequins provided by UPMC, and some of the mannequins inside the mine training facility were sophisticated to the point they simulated breathing and could groan or grunt.
But as Waynesburg firefighters worked to free one worker, members of Jefferson Volunteer Fire Department were facing a more daunting task. They had to use inflatable devises to lift heavy pieces of concrete in order to free their “victim.”
While local responders were busy on site, the Region 13 Task Force had been dispatched from Pittsburgh.
Region 13 was put in place by an unprecedented intergovernmental agreement between 13 Southwestern Pennsylvania counties and the city of Pittsburgh. Auvil said Region 13 conducts similar training exercises every other month and some have involved the Port Authority subway, busway and PNC Park, as well as exercises in Westmoreland, Beaver and Lawrence counties.
Once the entrance was cleared, emergency personnel prepared to “breach” the inside of the collapsed garage. There, they would find other victims buried under rock and one trapped inside a forklift.
“It all comes down to cooperation,” Auvil said. “It is amazing to see how much work went in to setting this up. It took about three weeks to assemble this scenario, but remember, if this was real, these men and women would be arriving on scene not knowing what to expect.”