Disaster drill needs little faking

Paine Field exercise gets

By Jim Haley

Herald Writer

PAINE FIELD — There was new urgency to a mock airplane disaster held Tuesday to train area emergency responders.

The East Coast terrorist attacks made every feigned action and scream by the victims a little more real.

"We always knew it could happen, but I think it’s up front and in your face now," said David Waggoner, director of Snohomish County Airport Paine Field.

Lori Kroll, a 16-year-old drama class student, should have gotten an Academy Award. When a firefighter briefly left the Boeing 727 airplane where she was hunkered down, she screamed, "Don’t leave us!"

When he returned, she struggled and yelled. She appeared to be in absolute panic, assuming the character of an injured band member whose airplane had just tumbled 2,000 feet to avoid collision with another aircraft.

The script called for Kroll to be injured, as were most of the 27 other high school band members, flight attendants and adult chaperones aboard the flight as they banged around the falling airplane.

County has terrorist disaster plan Herald staff Local police, fire and public health agencies have been gearing up to deal with mass disasters caused by terrorists for two years, said Roger Serra, director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management. The agency last year received a $100,000 federal grant to purchase protective suits for responders to chemical or biological attacks, or equipment to detect the presence of such agents. The state Emergency Management Council Committee on Terrorism was formed in 1999 under the governor’s direction. The committee’s charge was to develop a statewide strategy for preventing and responding to threats and acts of terrorism, Serra said. The committee has become a focal point for coordinating grant applications and planning. Serra said the local planning group has identified a need for additional equipment and training, thanks to an assessment done a year ago. In the wake of the East Coast attacks, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has written to county officials around the country telling them that he has directed every U.S. attorney’s district to establish an anti-terrorism task force to gather intelligence on terrorists. Local police may become involved in such intelligence gathering, Serra said, but the bulk of local efforts will deal with responding to threats.

It was hard to tell when Kroll was in or out of character, because she assumed a role that hit a lot closer to home following the terrorist attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Kroll, a student at Mukilteo’s Kamiak High School, played her role to the hilt. "I was scared. Everyone on that plane is hurt and bleeding," she said, indicating that she wasn’t through playing the panicked student. "I’m going to get another firefighter."

But the reality of what she was doing came home, too.

"Because it really does happen," she said. "It’s scary. It just happened two weeks ago. Not like this. But it does."

The Federal Aviation Administration requires the county’s general aviation airport to conduct a similar drill every three years. The airport tries to do it annually, involving a lot of area fire departments, communication systems, ambulance companies and local hospitals.

The aim is to learn from bringing various resources together to work on a common emergency. That way, it is hoped mistakes can be minimized or eliminated if the real thing comes along.

Fire departments from Mukilteo, Marysville and Everett participated, along with the Paine Field and Boeing fire departments. The two local ambulance companies and fire units from fire districts 1 and 7 also were there.

The most seriously injured were taken to Providence Everett Medical Center’s Colby Campus. The ambulatory went to the medical center’s Pacific Campus.

In this scenario, there was a minor electrical fire in the plane, but the attention of the firefighters centered on the simulated injuries suffered by those on board the derelict 727, donated by Goodrich Corp. to the Paine Field Fire Department for training purposes.

The realism of Kroll and others helped the firefighters. One of those who tended to Kroll, Paine Field’s Brett Blankenship, said the acting of the students "make it a lot more real for us. There’s a lot of noise, and we can’t really hear each other talk."

The airplane scenario had been planned for a long time to test area emergency responders, but for everyone associated with the exercise there was a new reality associated with it.

Jim Branstrom, Paine Field’s fire chief, said the terrorist attacks drive home that a disaster can strike any community and that emergency personnel have to be prepared to handle large numbers of injured people.

The local departments respond well to day-to-day emergencies, Everett Fire Chief Murray Gordon said. The need, he added, is to "prepare for those emergencies that aren’t everyday occurrences."

In the back of all the participants’ minds was that something evil not only could happen, but did two weeks ago, Paine Field fire Capt. Bill Rueter said.

You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447

or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.