Active shooter training hones first responders' skills

The moments that followed – of armed Powhatan deputies sweeping down the halls and into classrooms to root out any threats and firefighters and EMTs evaluating and transporting the “victims” left in the bullets’ wake – are the stuff of parents’ nightmares. A community’s nightmares.

But being prepared for the worst that could happen has become an increasingly prevalent reality in this nation, and Powhatan first responders want to make sure if that nightmare – or any other mass casualty event – came here, they would be as prepared as possible so they could save as many lives as they could, said Travis Lindsey, emergency management coordinator.

So Powhatan Fire and Rescue and Powhatan Sheriff’s Office teamed up to conduct a joint training exercise Sunday at the elementary school focusing on active shooter incident response /management and mass casualty response. The training involved structured scenarios to allow first responders to hone their skills in relation to crisis response, planning and procedures.

“With the unfortunate increase in active shooter events over the past decade, protocols and procedures have been developed by Powhatan Fire Rescue and Sheriff’s Office to be used when responding to such emergencies,” said Powhatan Fire Rescue Chief Phil Warner. “These joint procedures and initiatives help us plan and improve our overall response methodology. Significant incidents, such as the Columbine School shooting and the Parkland shooting, have emphasized the need for a more cohesive response and communication plan between fire/emergency medical services and law enforcement nationwide.”

During a scenario that lasted about an hour, upward of 150 people participated in the event between all of the first responders, controllers, observers, organizers, volunteer actors and even 911 dispatchers handling multiple simulated calls and helping with response. Lindsey expressed his gratitude that so many people were willing to participate in the exercise Sunday.

While the term active shooter training may generate disturbing mental images of an assailant threatening students and employees, he pointed out that the bulk of the training was focused on dealing with the aftermath.

“The average active shooter event lasts approximately eight minutes, but the total incident lasts far longer than that. While we may not have a situation where there is a threat for a long period of time, that incident will be ongoing for many, many hours after that shooter is subdued or that threat is eliminated,” Lindsey said. “These incidents stretch on for far longer than that initial period just because of the complexity of the situation.”

Each agency has its own jobs and skills it focuses on, but this type of event tests how they can work together, said deputy David Hunt, training sergeant.

“We need to see how we are going to be able to communicate, how we are going to work together and where the friction points are so we can kind of start working on that,” Hunt said.

Lindsey said he was pleased with the event overall and what it accomplished in highlighting areas where Powhatan first responders do well and where they can improve. He praised the different Powhatan agencies for the way they worked together.

“Powhatan County has the closest cooperation of any county I’ve ever worked for. The folks in the fire department and the sheriff’s office, the (emergency communications center), they truly are a family,” Lindsey said. “Everybody teases each other, everybody messes with each other and we have a lot of fun, but when the bell rings, everybody snaps to and everybody is focused on one mission, one goal. It is incredible to be part of that.”

Hunt agreed, saying there were things that went both right and wrong during the training, but “overall the point of the exercise is to figure out how you can improve.”

“Things going wrong in training isn’t necessarily something to be upset about,” he said. “If things go wrong in training, you can address them. It is better than having a false sense of security and finding out in a real event that you weren’t as prepared as you thought you were.”

Organizers will compile the data from the actors, the participant feedback forms and the notes from a group debrief that took place after the event in the cafeteria to create a formal after action review, Lindsey said. The report will likely have recommendations that may inform future policies and procedures or lead to additional training opportunities.

Hunt added that the agencies may try to have another training event this summer but “step it up a little more.”

“We are committed to trying to be a better overall public safety group – the sheriff’s office, fire and EMS – and we are just trying to figure out how to be as prepared as we can,” Hunt said.

The experience and training participants get from scenarios like the one on Sunday are applicable to many incidents outside of an educational environment, such as a large-scale accident or an event at a store, a government center or an office building. The same skills are used; it is just the setting is different, said Pat Schoeffel, assistant fire chief.

“The idea was to bring us all together and operate under a scenario where we have mass casualties, see how we all work together in our roles between the sheriff’s office, fire and EMS and the communications center,” he said.

Schoeffel pointed out the difference between the usual scenario local first responders deal with of a few victims at most and everybody working together to save them. Here, they were pulled in different directions being asked to evaluate victims in conditions of varying severity so they could administer aid and prioritize transport based on available resources.

“Realistically with ambulances, we would be overwhelmed so quick. We would be waiting for Goochland, Cumberland or Chesterfield, so you are talking about half an hour to get more ambulances here,” he said.

Lindsey also lauded the cooperation of the school division in letting them use Powhatan Elementary – as well as Powhatan Middle School in July 2022 for their first active shooter training – and having administrators there to observe and learn.

Powhatan Elementary Principal Constance Deal made an announcement at the beginning of the scenario about the school being on lockdown and then went to the command center to observe.

While observing and thinking about the real-life coordination of reaching out to parents and trying to keep the area clear if something ever did happen, Deal said it “hit as a reality that this could happen at any time.” The schools have training every year and regular conversations with students and staff so they can be better prepared, but there are always experiences that will help them improve, she added.

“At the end of the day, we just need to be prepared and be ready, try to stay calm and work with everybody to triage, not be in the way but be of help in any way we can,” Deal said.

Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@powhatantoday.com.