Drill Evaluation Performed on Kittanning Emergency Responders

by Jonathan Weaver

Nearly three dozen emergency personnel participated in an active shooter drill last month at the Armstrong County Health Center.

Last week, County HazMat Coordinator Bill Hamilton and County Public Safety Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Becky Feracioly conducted an evaluation of those fire, medical and police personnel at the Kittanning Hose Company #4 fire hall along Orr Avenue.

Evaluations were performed by medical, fire and police personnel and a debriefing was conducted with Armstrong County Health Center staffers to comprise the After Action Report.

“The report in an internal report for all of us to look at what we need to do to plan to improve,” Hamilton said. “It really looks at what happened in the drill – what went well, what went not-so-well – and the plan for improvement off of that.”

Hamilton said even though there is no formula for how often community drills should occur, emergency responders should take part in them – which he referred to as a “low frequency, high risk event” often. A train derailment, fire and chlorine leak tabletop exercise was conducted in Leechburg a few months ago, as well as an active shooter drill at Sugarcreek Rest in May.

“It’s like everything else – we constantly have new people coming in. We constantly have changes going on. The more you train, the more it becomes, for lack of a better term, ‘muscle-memory’ so when I get there, I know I have to do 1-2-3-4-5,” Hamilton said. “As we develop this, we may come up with some Standard Operating Procedures or a Field Operations Guide.

“Every exercise, you build upon the last exercise, so I think we’re pushing forward and good things are coming.”

Armstrong County Sheriff Bill Rupert suggested organizing an active shooter team.

“So we can continually train and become better and more proficient in responding to these types of situations,” Sheriff Rupert said.

“It’s not ‘if’ it’s going to happen, it’s ‘when’ it’s going to happen and trying to be prepared for it.”

Hamilton – who has a long background in emergency medical response in Pittsburgh and at ACMH- praised Health Center staff for their preparedness should an active shooter incident occur.

Many detailed recommendations were kept sensitive to drill organizers and participants to ensure future safety during exercises and to prevent emergency incidents.

A copy of the report will be submitted to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

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