Disaster scenario planned
The scenario facing emergency workers Saturday will be a severe high school football stadium collapse in which an unknown number of “victims” are trapped in Charleroi.
The old Charleroi Area High School stadium off Second Street will serve as backdrop for the full-scale urban search and rescue drill involving an anti-terrorism strike team in Southwestern Pennsylvania, local firefighters and the Washington County Department of Public Safety.
“If you’re not really on scene you probably won’t have any idea what’s going on there,” said Washington County public safety director Jeff Yates.
The responders won’t be sounding alarms and people nearby will probably only hear the sound of heavy equipment breaking apart concrete debris, which will be brought to the scene to simulate the collapse.
Some participants will work to shore up and secure hallways and tunnels that are under “threat” of collapse, while others will pretend to decontaminate survivors.
Yates said the county every year attempts to host an emergency drill, and exercises have evolved into participants using highly sophisticated technology to carry out their work.
“It’s an interesting evolution,” Yates said.
This drill is designed to evaluate the interaction the strike team has with local emergency responders and assets offered by the state. It also will be a tool to evaluate the performance of the mobile command post and the handing of critical patient care.
The drill is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. and last 12 hours.