INSTITUTE, W.Va. — Longtime Kanawha County emergency response official Mike Oakley says he’s never seen interest quite like it is now in the area of first responder training.
Oakley said he had no difficulty getting 100 first responders to sign-up for three days of training with top professors from LSU in the area of counter-terrorism education.
Oakley said he thinks he knows why.
“Just look at our world, there’s a lot of things going on, not only here, but in our world. Any of this stuff can happen at any time,” Oakley said.
The training with culminate Wednesday with an emergency drill having to do with chemical and biological explosives staged at several areas in Kanawha County.
The drill will include mass casualties. The staging areas will be at West Virginia State University, the Shawnee Sports Complex and WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals.
Oakley said you can’t ignore this type of training.
“We’re lucky that none of this has occurred here but we want to be prepared,” he said. “You’ve got stuff going on in the Middle East, protests here in our country. We are preparing from those incidences, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals President and CEO Dr. Greg Rosencrance said it’s important to be prepared for any crisis.
“This event underscores not only our ongoing commitment to the safety and well-being of our community, but the importance of collaboration with our partners on all levels, including emergency medical services, law enforcement, and city, county, and state leadership,” Rosencrance said.
As part of the drill, Thomas will activate its incident command system and stand up a command center. The hospital will also implement its mass casualty response plan to manage the influx of patients into its emergency department.
Oakley said the Kanawha Valley will be safer because of this week’s education and training.
“We’ve been sitting side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, all getting the same instruction from the folks at LSU, which are nationally renown, to be able to operate during this type of incident and work together,” Oakley said.
The drill will begin at around 10 a.m. near WVSU. There will be blank gunfire and smoke to begin the drill.
The drill will include the 100 or so people taking the classes and at least 45 volunteers.