Volunteer victim Devun Nadeau lays on a blanket while he is checked out by Westfield Fire department paramedics. For some procedures that would have been done on a victim like Nadeau, a medical dummy was necessary. (Photo by Peter Currier)
WESTFIELD- The Westfield Fire Department’s paramedics were given the opportunity to take a class that taught them how to properly respond to an active threat scenario.
On Monday and Tuesday representatives from Northern Berkshire Emergency Medical Services taught a class at the Little River Road Fire Station. Half of the department’s paramedics were in attendance for the classroom session and hands on training portions of the class. The paramedics learned how to respond to treat victims in active threat situations like an active shooter or a bombing while the situation is still ongoing.
On Tuesday, the paramedics did their classroom session in the morning before they moved on to the live scenario later in the afternoon. Tactical Medic Amalio Jusino of Northern Berkshire EMS was one of the instructors for the class. Before the live drill, he applied makeup to volunteers who would appear to suffer different types of injuries associated with an active shooter event. One volunteer, Westfield Fire Department Intern Devun Nadeau, was given two fake gunshot wounds to the chest and one to the face. Shaunna Fere, another volunteer for the exercise, was given one gunshot wound to the arm and another to the forehead.
In total there were six volunteers who played the roles of victims of an active shooter situation, including the shooter himself, who was shot by the also-injured police officer who responded to the scene in the given scenario. Once all of the volunteers were in position, the remaining paramedics in the class came into the room in teams and began treating the victims as if it were a real scene. To replicate the chaos of a real active shooter situation, the medics were not given radios and an alarm was set off in the building. The medics were not told what kind of situation they would be walking into before they began the drill.
One group of paramedics triage’s the victims based on the assigned severity of their wounds. (Photo by Peter Currier)
The medics treated the victims as they saw fit, which was difficult in some cases because some of the victims were told to act delirious or unresponsive. The person playing the role of the injured shooter was also instructed to hide his fake gun and be generally uncooperative. Following the immediate treatment, the training paramedics moved the victims outside to triage them based on the severity of their injuries and their chances of survival.
After the victims were triaged, all of the paramedics and firefighters were taken outside where Jusino talked about the exercise and how everybody did.
“You are going to have to go into a building that you may not know,” said Jusino, “That is the uncomfortable thing.”
Jusino added that the paramedics would be the first group of people inside the building after the police, and that they will have no idea of the situation going in. He emphasized that the paramedics would need to assess the situation quickly and accurately in order to save as many lives as possible.
There will be another two-day class on Thursday and Friday during which the other half of the Fire Department’s paramedics will take the class. Next week there will be a similar, one-day class for the basic EMS members in the department. Deputy Fire Chief Seth Ellis said that the police are invited to attend that class as well.
Paramedics prepare to move volunteer Shauna Fere (Blue shirt, on the ground) outside. Her assigned injuries were a gunshot wound to the arm and a not immediately fatal gunshot wound to the head. (Photo by Peter Currier)
The class was made possible by the Assistance to Firefighters Grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The grant of about $70,000 was written by Deputy Ellis and other firefighters within the department.
