Manassas airport exercise simulates disaster

By Cheryl Chumley

Published: June 28, 2008

A few minutes past 10 a.m. Saturday, a plane caught fire at Manassas Regional Airport, spilling smoke and passengers onto the runway, where emergency officials from a range of departments responded and treated the more than 20 injured.

It was a disaster of never-before-seen proportions in Prince William. And moreover, it was all fake.

"I've been here eight years, and we've never had this drill," said Juan Rivera, airport director, of Saturday's comprehensive emergency preparedness exercise.

The drill involved airport and city officials; PHI Air Care, the helicopter medical transport system; the American Red Cross; Prince William Hospital; and fire and rescue teams. The exercise also included the participation of about 28 men, women and children from the Voluntary Action Center of the Greater Prince William Area, who acted as plane crash victims with various ailments.

"They're just regular folks, not actors," said Bonnie Nahas, disaster services coordinator at the Volunteer Action Center.

The simulation is intended to be used both as a learning experience and stepping stone to future, more comprehen-sive exercises, Rivera said.

"Different agencies want to exercise different things," he said. "Rescue wants to exercise its triage. Fire wants to exercise its instant command … next year, we'll want the [press] to participate" to see how officials respond in real-time emergency mode to

frenzied media questioning. "Again, we've never done this before, and we want to crawl before we run."

The drill kicked off with a loud boom followed by smoke, sirens and the response of fire and rescue personnel. Shortly after, the fire—from a "fuel line spillage from the airplane"—began.

"It's a propane mat," Rivera explained, in reference to a flaming black portable mat, an eyeball estimate of 12 feet by 14 feet in size, that serves as a firefighters' training tool to simulate fuel-based blazes. "It's computerized and if you don't put enough water on it, the fire won't go out."

Meanwhile, the so-called victims began to move into place.

"There's 10 to 15 victims in place at the hospital wearing placards" describing their injuries, Rivera said, at the outset of the exercise. "They'll be sent inside in waves, maybe two at a time. The key people at the hospital know … but the doctors and nurses on call probably don't know what's going on. They won't know until it happens."

Also on scene for the airport exercise were American Red Cross officials.

"We're here to help care for the first responders," said Karen Wayne, chief executive officer for the Prince William chapter. "We're simulating a family reception area."

Normally, Wayne added, Red Cross wouldn't set up the family area right at the airport, in view of the in-jured.

Jolene Berry, senior operations specialist who organized the bulk of the training exercise, said planning and coordi-nation for the drill took about six months.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.