An exercise last night in Warren County brought first-responders to the hot-air balloon launching field on Indianola’s east side last (Monday) night. Indianola Fire Chief Brian Seymour says he sees real value in doing genuine walk-through rehearsals for disaster situations. He says when you walk through the process you find where something’s not working and you can change it. The chief says you don’t have that opportunity in a real emergency. “You’ve got to deal with what’s in front of you, do in a fast-paced fashion, and you only get one opportunity there. With a drill you can back up and correct the plan, make a better response for if and when something bad really does happen,” he says. Seymour says emergency administrators putting together this kind of mock disaster exercise look at what others around Iowa have done. There are some planning tools for them to study and review. He says they also look at the stories of other communities that have coped with real emergencies. They offer the reports on what worked for them and what didn’t, so others can learn from their experience. Fire fighters from Indianola and surrounding communities struggled in nearly 90-degree heat, as they coped with an imaginary scenario that had 45 to 50 victims of a car-crash type situation. The chief says triage was one main focus, sorting out the most urgent cases and dealing with them quickly so the fire and rescue crews will have their plans rehearsed when a real disaster faces them.
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