Fire departments conduct training at Clearview Mall
Despite there being no real fire, local fire departments responded to their training session Tuesday, Nov. 26, as if a real emergency was occurring at Clearview Mall.
In front of the mall’s front entrance, at least a dozen emergency vehicles responded to a planned exercise between fire departments including Butler City, Butler Township, Unionville, Slippery Rock, Prospect, Chicora, West Sunbury and Marion Township, along with a handful of ambulance services present.
The training was meant to be as realistic as possible. This was clear after the firefighters set off a couple smoke bombs and waves of civilians ran out of the mall. The actors were from the EMS training program, students from Slippery Rock University and other firefighters present.
The civilians, struggling to breathe and yelling about a fire in the building, ran into the parking lot. Firefighters prepared to enter the danger zone.
“We’re acting like it’s a real fire, except we aren’t spraying water everywhere,” Andy Hoehn of the Unionville Volunteer Fire Company said.
As the firefighters were able to enter, using hand tools and longer equipment meant for opening doors during a fire, they were able to get more civilians to safety. Some had more severe injuries, with some being carried out, limping and lying on the ground receiving medical attention. Paramedics at the scene gave blankets to the civilians as they checked them out for injuries sustained.
Meanwhile, a helicopter landed outside the old J.C. Penney’s building next to the mall’s entrance. Patients were soon “airlifted” out of the scene to receive emergency medical care.
“That would have been what triage decided, the way they categorize the people, it would have decided what status they were. That one would have obviously needed to go to a burn center because of their injuries,” Hoehn said.
As firefighters continued to pour into the mall and the helicopter took off, one of the truck’s crane’s lifted firefighters to the building’s roof. On the ground, firefighters hooked the hoses up to the truck and spread them out across the lot, getting in position to put the fire out.
Eventually, with radio signals coming in that there were multiple firefighters down, three were dragged out of the building to receive urgent medical care. In this particular simulation, multiple civilian victims were deceased.
“It simulates real-life things you have to deal with,” Hoehn said.
The chaos of it all was intentional. In some instances, firefighters not participating directly, wearing bright vests to separate themselves, followed the firefighters around telling them what kind of fire they were facing in the moment, and ensuring everything went smoothly. But with people everywhere screaming and the walkie-talkies blowing up, the environment was meant to be realistic. This included a parking lot still filled with cars from some stores and restaurants that were still open. As some shoppers meandered around the exercise wondering what was going on, filming on their phones, being in the middle of a busy area served its purpose.
“This was all part of it, this was how we designed it. To make it as close to being real as possible, without flowing water and burning the building down,” Randy Brown of the Unionville VFC said. “This allowed everybody to play a role, get an assignment, go do that assignment, and all the interaction between all the departments to make it come together.”
