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MCI Incidents - How would you handle this?
5 dead, 7 injured in crash of special needs kids van
January 7, 2010 3:58 p.m. EST
The crash occured near Columbus, Ohio, in Harmony Township.
(CNN) -- Five people were killed and seven injured Wednesday when a tanker truck collided with a school van carrying special needs children west of Columbus, Ohio, according to a paramedic who treated some of the injured at the scene.
Paramedic Tom Freeman said all the dead were in the school vehicle.
The crash happened at about 12:40 p.m. today on Interstate 70 eastbound near State Route 40 in Harmony Township, Ohio.
OK folks, this is current stuff that could happen to any of us, at any time. So... what would you do in this realtime incident that resulted in a mass casualty incident (MCI)?
This incident has occurred in your first-in district and your 2nd in engine company is about 20-minutes out, so your on your own with one ambulance, and (1) one life-flight helicopter enroute. You also have a couple of state troopers on scene with more coming as well as a tow truck.
Using real time incident specifics, you have a gasoline tanker that struck a van carrying handicapped children. You have (5) black tags and an assortment of green, yellow and red tags. For the purposes of this drill scenario, you have (4) four red tags, (2) yellow tags and (1) green tag.
I look forward to hearing how folks do this across the country, down under and elsewhere in the world where any of us have the potential for dealing with a MCI related incident.
I don't intend on this drill being especially difficult and in fact, it is actually a bread & butter operation. But daunting if you have never had the chance to at least discuss it, learn some of the tricks (32 Can Do...) and remember how you eat an elephant... one bite at a time...
This is intended to both challenge you and reinforce issues that are really important. And speaking of challenges... hey explorers and juniors!!! this is your chance to talk about something other than not being respected. I challenge to you read these posts and ask pertinent questions. As mentioned many times by those defending explorers and juniors on the FFN, we ALL had to start somewhere, so take advantage of some free training and learn with eyes wide open. Hopefully, someday you will be in a position to respond to this type of incident and be one of the people who know how to handle it.
Good luck...
As always, train hard & often and be safe, your favorite old Captain... :D
CBz
Update No. 1: This incident has occurred in the middle of the summer on a nice day, not in the snow as the real incident presented itself. This change is necessary to enable focusing on the product inside the tanker truck.
Update No. 2: All patients have been triaged and moved for transport or the morgue. Responding personnel attended one of my command classes and used the following acronym for handling this incident.
SCARIE-PM
sizeup
establish command
ask for assistance
determine whether a rescue is needed or not
isolate the hazard(s) if necessary
evacuate if necessary
try to find a person responsible to help you with specific information
if safe to do so, attempt to identify the material
The also used START Triage...
Does anyone not know about how to use this system? It's very simple and may require a separate post to explain this. Oh wait... I already did... :D
http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/start-triage-system-d...
January 7, 2010 3:58 p.m. EST
The crash occured near Columbus, Ohio, in Harmony Township.
(CNN) -- Five people were killed and seven injured Wednesday when a tanker truck collided with a school van carrying special needs children west of Columbus, Ohio, according to a paramedic who treated some of the injured at the scene.
Paramedic Tom Freeman said all the dead were in the school vehicle.
The crash happened at about 12:40 p.m. today on Interstate 70 eastbound near State Route 40 in Harmony Township, Ohio.
OK folks, this is current stuff that could happen to any of us, at any time. So... what would you do in this realtime incident that resulted in a mass casualty incident (MCI)?
This incident has occurred in your first-in district and your 2nd in engine company is about 20-minutes out, so your on your own with one ambulance, and (1) one life-flight helicopter enroute. You also have a couple of state troopers on scene with more coming as well as a tow truck.
Using real time incident specifics, you have a gasoline tanker that struck a van carrying handicapped children. You have (5) black tags and an assortment of green, yellow and red tags. For the purposes of this drill scenario, you have (4) four red tags, (2) yellow tags and (1) green tag.
I look forward to hearing how folks do this across the country, down under and elsewhere in the world where any of us have the potential for dealing with a MCI related incident.
I don't intend on this drill being especially difficult and in fact, it is actually a bread & butter operation. But daunting if you have never had the chance to at least discuss it, learn some of the tricks (32 Can Do...) and remember how you eat an elephant... one bite at a time...
This is intended to both challenge you and reinforce issues that are really important. And speaking of challenges... hey explorers and juniors!!! this is your chance to talk about something other than not being respected. I challenge to you read these posts and ask pertinent questions. As mentioned many times by those defending explorers and juniors on the FFN, we ALL had to start somewhere, so take advantage of some free training and learn with eyes wide open. Hopefully, someday you will be in a position to respond to this type of incident and be one of the people who know how to handle it.
Good luck...
As always, train hard & often and be safe, your favorite old Captain... :D
CBz
Update No. 1: This incident has occurred in the middle of the summer on a nice day, not in the snow as the real incident presented itself. This change is necessary to enable focusing on the product inside the tanker truck.
Update No. 2: All patients have been triaged and moved for transport or the morgue. Responding personnel attended one of my command classes and used the following acronym for handling this incident.
SCARIE-PM
sizeup
establish command
ask for assistance
determine whether a rescue is needed or not
isolate the hazard(s) if necessary
evacuate if necessary
try to find a person responsible to help you with specific information
if safe to do so, attempt to identify the material
The also used START Triage...
Does anyone not know about how to use this system? It's very simple and may require a separate post to explain this. Oh wait... I already did... :D
http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/start-triage-system-d...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on
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Capt. Busy. Thank you very much for this information. I needed this. I was. well I wouldn't say clueless, but not as informed as I should be. I've learned quite a bit here from your knowledge. Thank you. I will pass this info on to our training officer, though I will not take credit for it.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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From your post, it was a given that your department is proficient in the use of the triage tags. Using your post to bring up other key training points was used to share key points, Thank you.
Question: On a WMD drill, did you discover that the provided triage tags were not waterproof, and all the written patient information disappeared when they went through the decon process?
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Another AWESOME Post Trainer!
Key Points Learned:
[ ] Only use ARFFF on Ethanol fires.
[ ] Ensure a thick foam blanket
[ ] Do your homework ahead of time, including standardized responses
[ ] Have mutual aid plans in place.
[ ] Be able to deal with MCI multiple casualties, eg. refrigerator truck, morgues
[ ] Don't forget the emotional needs of patients and rescuers using your FD Chaplains
Thanks for sharing Chief T... CBz
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Permalink Reply by Ben "Batman" Barry on
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One thing I would like to know is what is the difference between SMART and Start triage?
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My department did the SMART class for everyone, even the non EMS people. I think personally it works good for us so if something happens the members know what to do. Personally I think all FD EMS and PD personel should b trained in SMART and at least CFR but thaat a whole other discussion.
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Cool... good to hear that the information will be shared with other firefighters. It's all about giving back don't you know! Stay safe my friend,
Michael Schlags, Fire Captain / Hazmat WMD Specialist
Santa Barbara, CA
mschlags@yahoo.com
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Permalink Reply by Trainer on
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It's a little early, so I hope I get this right; pretty much the same thing, different MFG's same colors same numbers. Smart cards have an advantage in that they are all in one and you can easily change in order to reflect victim's status.
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Now that I took the time to google SMART TAGS, and Ben, you really need to take the time to do your own homework sometimes. Super easy to go to google and look up things... what a concept... so, with that said...
SMART TAGS (used in New York):
http://www.tsgassociates.co.uk/English/Civilian/products/smart_tag.htm
WMD TRIAGE TAGS: (used in the Western USA): This was covered already here on the FFN with a post that I authored that explains how to use triage tags.
http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/889755:Topic:2878691
Key Point: What ever triage tag you use MUST BE WATERPROOF! We learned this the hard way during a WMD drill. Tags were filled out with vitals and information, only to find out that they were not waterproof. Information was simply dissolved away from the decon process. You may need to use waterproof pens for documenting data on the tags or make sure that they are waterproof. And yes, I posted information on this already as well on the FFN.
http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/889755:Topic:2607568
Train as if your life depends on it, because it does!
CBz
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Permalink Reply by Marvin Hawk on
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My past experience is that once you have the injured out of the way all of the deceased become a crime scene until the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Media Whores have done their thing. In the meantime family members get to sit a mile up the road wondering why their loved ones can't be treated with a bit of human dignity. Unless you had a really big M.C.I. all of the deceased are removed one at a time. Here in NY. the State Coroners Association have teams set up to deal with large M.C.I.'s where temp morgues etc are set up. My county has three coroners, and if the incident were bad enough you would probably see all three of them on scene. In NY you do not have to be a MD to be a coroner.
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in my world, deputy sheriff's are the coroners...
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