History always in the Making

[Shirley]

Think about it, history is what I learned from a book about my parents generation and my grandparents generation. Today's generation of kids are learning from a book about the Oklahoma bombing, the first World Trade Center bombing, and the Challenger blowing up. In 15 years, the generation after this generation of teens will be learning from a book about 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, and many things that we had to live through. But one thing that we have to keep in mind is especially w/ the two WTC incidences and the Oklahoma bombing is how much EMS, ff, and police manpower was used for those, as well as for the Hurricane Katrina (was there any). For the Challenger blowing up, there was only debris that could be found. What else could be taught at the provider level about WMD's, MCI's, etc? I mean, we can prepare to a certain extent by holding disaster drills w/ area hospitals, but we cannot always be prepared and if we have experience w/ those certain scenarios, how can we pass on that legacy and experience to future generations of EMS providers, ff providers, and police officers?

[Jamie Davis, the Podmedic]

Shirley, great topic. I've forwarded this link on to Rick Russotti because I think this is right up his alley. I hope he gets the chance to come over here and leave his impressions with the group.
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Jamie Davis, NREMT-P "the Podmedic"
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[Rob]

In the fire department I started with we had a busy railroad which split our district almost right down the middle. We held an annual "Mass Casualty Incident" drill, but it always seemed to be an overturned schoolbus. I continually suggested that we should train for a derailment incident, and I was contiually told to forget about it. To date there hasn't been a derailment (knock on wood) but it is the standard ostrich in the sand attitude. Where I am now, we have a chemical weapons disposal site, so we conduct large scale mass casualty incident events with multiple agencies involved; but even this last year we had an overturned schoolbus. Shouldn't we train for more than overturned schoolbuses, or is that just here?