Portage Lakes training exercise tests rescuers at mass casualty event

The crash between a pontoon and a motorboat Thursday at Turkeyfoot Lake was staged, but the rescue action was as real as it gets.

More than a dozen local, county and state agencies participated in a training exercise involving eight live victims, six mannequins and a sunken pontoon for the largest water rescue exercise elders remembered.

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While members of the command and coordination portion of the exercise observed and assessed the effort from New Franklin Beach, rescuers converged on the crash site across the lake.

Coventry Township resident Bob Stokes, who retired from the township fire department in March 2020, has volunteered to play the role of a victim.

“I have a head injury,” Stokes said as he prepared to be whisked away to the crash.

A discolored stain painted on his forehead indicated the area of ​​the injury, with the other seven volunteers each displaying similar marks for the “wounds” they had received.

Invaluable exercise for a popular recreation area

Stokes said he often took part in disaster training drills while in the department, but the water drill gave him a chance to get a different perspective.

“Before, I was in the rescue role,” he said. “Now I am the victim of the rescue. “

Stokes said such exercises, whether on land or on the water, are invaluable learning tools.

“It’s great for training,” he said.

Stokes said as boat traffic on the lakes continues to increase, so does the risk of an actual accident.

Learning tool helps emergency management team

Thomas Smoot, director of the Summit County Emergency Management Agency, said the operation would help the county’s mass casualty planning efforts.

“The feedback will help us with our plan,” Smoot said. “It’s a great opportunity for some local services to work together.

Steve Bosso, deputy chief of the Twinsburg fire department, said the exercise would assist emergency management coordinators tasked with organizing disaster operations.

“We are in sight of 10,000 feet,” he said. “It’s also a test for us.

Bosso said managing a large emergency effort requires bringing together people and resources to deal with a disaster, but it can also involve more mundane details.

“It can be about finding food and feeding people,” he said.

After a tornado swept through Twinsburg in 2002, this task came on a weekend when town hall offices were closed and checks could not be issued. The coordinators found themselves at McDonald’s with no credit and a large order to fill.

“[They said] I need 200 burgers and I will pay you on Tuesday, ”he said.

Resources and preparedness are tested

Lt. Don Burroughs of the New Franklin Fire Department said about 15 service members participated in the exercise, which was designed to test the limits of the South Summit Water Rescue Team, leading it to call on more and more agencies.

The South Summit team is made up of the New Franklin, Green, Coventry, Lakemore, Copley and Norton fire departments.

“We’re going to overwhelm the resources we have,” Burroughs said. “We want to determine what is the turnaround time? Instead of six ambulances, do we need 12? “

New Franklin, Green and Coventry, as the main communities near Portage Lakes, were the first to receive the call for exercise. First responders found the pontoon boat sunk and several casualties who had to be located and rescued.

As the scale of the operation became apparent, more help was called in. Summit County Incident Management Team joining the expanding exercise.

Simulated accident scene treated with great care

Shortly after 10 a.m., about an hour after the start of the exercise, help was called from the Jackson Fire Department, across the Summit County border.

Green Fire Captain Josh Compton, who recently returned from a collapsed condo rescue and salvage operation in Surfside, Fla., Was on hand to observe and offer any advice he could from his experience of the Ohio Task Force 1 during FEMA-level disasters.

“I’m trying to take my experience with FEMA and apply it [locally],” he said.

A former member of the Green Fire Department’s dive team, Compton said water rescue technology has come a long way, with SONAR imagery leading the way.

“If it’s a rescue, we put the divers in the water immediately,” he said.

Captain Brian Andrews of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said the drill was the biggest he had seen in 32 years with the agency.

With the checklist handy, Andrews said he was assessing the effort, looking at response times for search and rescue, use of side-scan SONAR devices and a host of other details. . As the exercise progressed, he said, a dead dog would be brought in, along with investigative staff.

“In order to find out where the leaks are on the pipes, we plug one end and then turn it on full,” he said.

Leave a message to Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.