It only took about an hour, and 30 lives were methodically saved by Bruce
County Emergency Medical Services and the Brockton Fire Department.
The lives were never in any real danger, but last Wednesday’s mock disaster
scenario of a pick-up colliding with a farm vehicle hauling ammonia is
something Brockton’s fire chief  calls plausible.
“This could happen at any time in Bruce County,” Michael Rozario said after
the mock disaster.
The exercise, in its fifth year, puts the skills of emergency responders to
the test, but it also exposes Grade 10 and 11 students participating in the
MedQUEST camp to many aspects of the health care field. It also brings first
year medical students to the area, as MedQUEST camp counsellors.
“The big picture of MedQUEST is two-fold. Three med students come into the
rural community and are shadowing physicians in emerg, in the birthing
centre, in the family practices; and then there’s 30 (high school) students
looking into careers – not only doctors but other allied health professions
– will get to see opportunities in Grey-Bruce, and be encouraged to come
back,” said Myrna Inglis, chair of the MedQUEST committee.
She was very pleased with the outcome of Wednesday’s event, and how the mock
disaster has evolved in the past five years.
“We wanted the students to see how EMS and the fire department works
together and in collaboration with the hospital staff, and when the
community sees the emergency exercise, they gain confidence,” she said.
She noted that emergency protocol has been developed thanks to the mock
disasters, such as the triage tarp system, which sees casualties placed on
coloured tarps according to their condition. In the first exercise,
casualties were tagged on the arm, but wind kept flipping the tags, or the
position of the body would hide the tag, delaying treatment.
The tarp system puts casualties in one, highly visible area – green for
responsive and walking; yellow for responsive but injured; red for severely
injured; black for dead.
Fortunately there was no need for the black tarp on Wednesday, but it was a
dramatic scene at the fire hall and Sacred Heart High School.
After the “collision” a sprinkler was turned on to simulate the off-gassing
ammonia tank, and casualties were screaming in pain, as acting onlookers
approached the scene, getting “contaminated.”
All the while, Brockton firefighters suited in full gear and gas masks
controlled the crowd and freed the victims trapped in the vehicles.
One casualty, playing the girlfriend of one of the seriously injured gave a
believably hysteric performance as she screamed and thrashed at the
firefighters and paramedics as they dragged her away from the accident scene
to the decontamination area.
The onlookers were transported to the hospital in a school bus, where they
were stripped down to their underwear (bathing suits for Wednesday’s
purposes), and scrubbed down in a tent before being let into the building.
Sacred Heart student and MedQUEST participant David Carroll said the
students never broke character, even on the bus where there was no one to
see them but each other, they were coughing, and crying, and someone even
“passed out.”
“It was fairly tense. A lot of people were really getting into their roles,”
said Carroll, a Grade 11 student.
The firefighters remained on scene and doused each other with the fire hose,
and were scrubbed down by EMS in hazardous materials suits.
Rozario said this was the “first taste” the 11 participating firefighters
have had working with a hazardous materials scenario, and that it went
really well.
“It was a good exercise that displayed the interoperability of Bruce County
EMS, Walkerton Fire Department, and the South Bruce Grey Health Centre,” he
said.
Bruce County EMS deputy chief Kent Padfield was also “really pleased” with
the exercise.
“We have four staff trained (in hazardous material handling) but this was
the first time they worked with fire services, and it went really well,”
Padfield said.
He said these scenarios are “few and far between” so it was good to use the
MedQUEST mock disaster to keep the skills sharp.
He also commented on the students’ acting.
“The students are fantastic. They really get into their role, and that’s
what makes the exercise as pure and real as it is,” Padfield said.