Redmond Airport holds major ‘bomb’ disaster drill
Several rescue agencies and dozens of young actors, some screaming and with realistic-looking wounds from a supposed ” bomb, ” put on a dramatic disaster drill Thursday morning at the Redmond Municipal Airport.
Every three years, the Federal Aviation Administration calls for commercial airports the size of RDM to conduct disaster reenactments.
Between 70 and 80 high school students were used as pretend victims in a simulated plane bombing.
Redmond and Bend firefighters were on hand to practice and learn how to respond to airport disasters.
“We are trying to make this as realistic as possible,” said Redmond Fire and Rescue Deputy Chief Jeff Puller. ” All of our role-players were moulaged with injuries this morning. So they actually have injuries, or fake injuries, that are painted onto their bodies. They have bones sticking out, or missing fingers, and they are all instructed to role-play, whether they have chest pain or a broken arm. ”
Once the injuries of the “victims” were assessed, they were transported to Summit Medical Group’s Redmond Clinic, and some were even flown to St. Charles Bend.
The drill took months of coordination and communication to get all of the rescue agencies on the same page. Airport Security Coordinator Nicole Jurgensen said they will take what they learned Thursday and use it for the future — hopefully, never for the real thing.
“We do have an after-action get-together, where we debrief on what went really well, what we can improve on and what we learned,” Jurgensen said.
Representatives from St. Charles Health System also were on hand to help and learn disaster procedures. Robert Pfister , the St. Charles chief quality safety officer, said communication is a main point of interest.
“The key thing is communication, and we want to talk to our community partners and triage the patients based on acuity and need,” Pfister said. ” We have a variety of excellent resources and capacity to take care of them. We just want to get the patients to a place where they will be most perfectly cared for. ”
KTVZ 2019
