Huron’s Emergency Services Participates In Multi-Agency Training Exercise

by Bob Montgomery

Huron County’s Emergency Services Department and Paramedic team participated in a multi-agency training exercise at the North Huron Fire Training Grounds in Blyth this week.

The exercise ran from September 24th to the 26th and involved the simulation of a Mass Casualty Incident, in this case a school bus. Huron County's Director of Emergency Services Jeff Horseman, says the objective was to develop a joint exercise that would allow them to collaborate with their other first responding agencies to provide a live scale training session for all agencies. The exercise was designed to bring emergency agencies together in a simulated event for the purpose of improving collective emergency response skills. Paramedic co-op students, along with other student volunteers from local area high schools, also participated in the training exercise by playing the role of casualties of a school bus accident.

Horseman says the first three-day session wrapped up Thursday, and another three or four day session is planned for next April. Horseman says part of the reason for that is that only half of their staff were able to train in this session and they want all of their staff to go through the exercise, as well as fire fighters and members of the OPP that couldn't be part of the first session.

Horseman says the last time they conducted a training exercise like this was before COVID, so it's been a while, and this week's exercise involving the crash of a school bus was a little larger than the last one in that it involved casualties in the bus and on the ground outside of the bus. Horseman adds that it was all done very well.

More information about the County of Huron’s Emergency Services Department can be found at this page on the Huron County website.

Photos courtesy of Huron County Emergency Services