"California's Santa Maria Airport 'crash' tests emergency readiness"

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Airport 'crash' tests emergency readiness 
By Janene Scully
The Santa Maria (CA) Times


As a county fire official casually noted Craig Holladay's gaping chest
wound, badly burned face and other dramatic injuries, the "victim" offered a
pain-free comment. 

"Good times," Holladay said of injuries that, if real, shouldn't have left a
smile on his face. 
 
Holladay was among the pretend wounded serving as plane crash victims for a
multi-agency drill at the Santa Maria Public Airport Wednesday. 

"It sounded like fun," said Holladay, Aviation Unlimited operations manager,
of his decision to volunteer. "They did an excellent job. I was surprised.
It's almost like movie quality." 

An out-of-service city transit bus stood in as a just-crashed airplane.
Shortly after 10 a.m., smoke poured from the vehicle and a county dispatcher
voiced the "red alert" alarm to signal crews. Santa Barbara County Fire
Station 21 raced to the scene in the behemoth bright green crash truck. 

The drill is required every three years to evaluate airport and emergency
crews' response to a plane crash involving multiple injuries. 

Participants included Santa Barbara County, Orcutt, Santa Maria and
Vandenberg fire departments. Ham radio operators, Red Cross and airport
officials also played roles. 

Before launching the drill, county fire Battalion Chief Chris Childers told
his cast of victims to "go ahead and play the part," while reminding
firefighters to respond with urgency and safety although the situation isn't
real. 

As the time to start neared, Childers issued a "fire it up" command over the
radio. Another inquired if they should spray real water on pretend fire. 

"The initial attack will have water but we'll stop it before people get
wet," Childers said. Winds carried water onto nearby spectators. 

The drill ended just before noon and crews gathered for an informal
debriefing. 

"We got a chance to practice some things," said Santa Barbara County Fire
Capt. Charlie Johnson. "There's always lessons learned." 

The crews generally earned "good marks" for how they handled the emergency
scene, he added. Some problems were familiar - communication snafus again
were identified. Others were new. Still others were simply related to the
drill, such as smoke deemed too light to be visible to air traffic
controllers and causing delays in the drill's start. 

Waiting for rescue, Zach Johnson of Arroyo Grande rose from the dirt and
grass to light a cigarette. 

"I think my belly hurts," Johnson said as faux intestines sprung from his
abdomen. "I think it's pretty cool." 

As crews raced to place color-coded triage tarps, pretend patients moaned
while others sat up, eager to observe the action. 

"This is quite interesting actually," said Airman 1st Class Dan Ankrum from
the 532nd Training Squadron. "I've never seen anything like this."

Attached Photo:

The Santa Maria airport crash truck arrives at the scene during a disaster
drill Wednesday pumping water that soaks "victims" along with a drill
evaluator who is seen running. Below, as smoke whiffs from a bus doubling as
a crashed plane, Zach Johnson takes time for a quick smoke before his
"injuries" are attended to by air-crash drill rescuers.

SantaMaria.jpg