9/10/2011 8:35:00 AM
By Will E Sanders
Ohio Community Media
Sometimes in the field of safety services, first responders hope for the best and train for the worst.
That is why safety personnel from around the area have spent the last three days conducting training in the event of a plane crash, or a plane-related emergency.
Since Thursday and running through today, the Piqua Airport-Hartzell Field has been been closed to the public as personnel with various emergency departments got an up-close, firsthand look at what it would be like should an aviation incident - from a plane crash to an large, ignited fuel spill - ever transpire.
The training exercises, being conducted in conjunction with Miami County Emergency Management and the West Virginia Fire Academy, will serve as a real-life scenario in the event of an aviation-related disaster, said Derrick Wood, a representative of the academy.
Some of the exercises public safety members performed during the three-day training exercise were a simulated plane crash, a cabin fire and a large, simulated fuel spill that caught on fire.
A key component of the training is a state-of-the-art airliner crash and fire simulator that area police, fire and emergency management departments trained with and aboard.
One of the scenarios first responders dealt with was a commuter plane crash with about 50 people on board that had to make an emergency landing, but crashed instead.
The scenario involved other factors related to such an incident, including hazardous materials, mass casualties and the prospect the incident was caused by terrorists.
But the training just wasn't all real-life scenarios, as some of the training also involved in-class presentations.
Wood, one of several instructors, said that in the world we live in today, such training is needed - calling it "crucial."
"We are teaching an introduction to aircraft firefighting," Wood said. "It's a good idea to have this class to get (first responders) familiar with the types of aircraft and how to put out fuel fires."
While the Piqua Fire Department was the lead agency, along with Miami County EMA, the training scenario involved several jurisdictions throughout Miami County and parts of Montgomery County.
The scenarios were a chance for local first responders to prepare and train for a disaster, such as a plane crash, in the future, said Piqua Assistant Fire Chief Vince Ashcraft.
"It does open up something that we are not typically prepared for," he said.
"We don't have a lot of planes that drop out of the sky, but this reinforces everything we have learned, like hazardous materials, with special precautions we take with any aircraft, the high flammability rate of the fuel and other unique hazards that can happen."
Ashcraft added: "It can happen. It has happened."
The assistant chief said the Piqua Fire Department will be prepared in the event of a plane crash.
"Are we going to be prepared for the exact incident if it happens?" Ashcraft said. "No, we never are. But we are being given some exposure and getting our mind set in a certain way to think what will happen so we can respond properly. I think we will be very well prepared. Every time we go to an incident it is a new incident. We never have anything that is exactly the same."
Since the training began on Thursday, the airport has been shut down to air traffic.
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