It began at 8 a.m. when an armed man entered the building. The shooter fired at students on the first floor, and the emergency calls went out.
It may have been a test, but emergency response agencies want to be prepared and know the plan of action in case an emergency with the magnitude of Wednesday”s drill does happen.
Mississippi University for Women students and faculty participated in the emergency-response drill involving a live shooter and an exposed chemical inside Cochran Hall on MUW campus. Local emergency response agencies worked together to eliminate the acting shooter and get as many people out of the “contaminated” building as possible, hoping the real thing never happens, but being ready in case it does.
“It gives all the agencies a chance to practice working together, and it also gives us a learning advantage and shows room for improvement,” Carole Summerall, fire and life safety officer with Columbus Fire and Rescue, said.
MUW campus police arrived at the scene first around 8:06 a.m. and successfully took out the acting shooter on the second floor. But campus police found another dangerous situation at the scene.
“Once we got to the third floor, we noticed we had a chemical release,” Sgt. Randy Vibrock of the MUW police said, noting the department”s role then changed to letting other agencies know the details of the situation.
“Officers realized it was a chemical spill and that”s when Hazmat was called,” Jamie Shields, MUW public affairs office manager said.
Once other response agencies arrived at around 8:10 a.m., the focus shifted to getting students out of the building safely and decontaminating them with a water hose while transporting chemical and gunshot victims to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
Other participating agencies included Columbus Fire and Rescue, the Lowndes County Sheriff”s Office, Columbus Air Force Base, Columbus Police Department, BMH-GT, the Lowndes County coroner, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and the Golden Triangle Regional Hazmat team; Lowndes County Emergency Management, Lowndes County 911 communication center and the Mississippi State Department of Health.
”Room for improvement”
The exercise ended around 10 a.m. and participants re-entered the building and discussed each agency”s role in the scenario and what could be improved upon.
Emergency responders hosted a similar demonstration a year ago at the campus, and nursing teacher Janice Giallourakis said the attitude seemed “casual.”
“There was a much greater sense of this was important than this year,” she said, noting she also found it alarming that a containment perimeter was not created around the building.
“Other students were all over and all around, which could be an added danger.”
Other nursing faculty said there were students acting as critically injured on the first floor who were not attended to immediately once the acting live shooter was eliminated.
“There were at least two critically injured students on the floor. I guess we were expecting someone to see about us and check on us,” Rochelle Hughes, a nursing professor, said. “That was kind of frightening.”
Kim Schnurbusch, also a professor in the nursing department, said she also was on the first floor and even asked for help, but said “we were kind of ignored.”
Communication is key
Richard Holloway, training officer with Emergency Management, said many acting victims were not able to be attended to because they were still inside the contaminated building.
“We do not go into an unsafe area,” Holloway said, noting the communication between agencies needed to be better. “We didn”t communicate well enough with people inside this building.”
Holloway said emergency responders should have been informed that the chemical contaminated the third floor and not the first floor. Then acting victims on the first floor could have been transported out of the building.
“Someone should”ve communicated that we could”ve come in,” Holloway said, noting communication is “everyone”s responsibility.”
Sgt. Aaron Huddle of CAFB said the spraying of contaminated students with water should have taken longer to provide a proper decontamination.
“This is our fault. We should have slowed you guys down,” Huddle said.
Chris Hansen of Columbus Fire and Rescue also had some pointers for the students who participated.
“When you see signs that they”re trying to hurt everyone in the building, be wary for everything going on around you,” he said, noting communicating as much information as possible to responders helps.
“The more information that we know, the quicker we can help you,” Huddle said.
Realistic drill
Paige Lochridge was one of the students who participated, and the MUW nursing student began her Wednesday morning the usual way, sitting inside a classroom on the third floor of the building. However, the daily schedule took a dramatic shift when the shooter entered the building and began firing at students on the first floor.
“Our teacher tried to hold the door closed, and we used tables to block the door,” Lochridge said
Once the shooter was taken out, emergency-response groups learned that hydrogen sulfide had been released in the building and would contaminate students. Lochridge was not one of the students severely injured, but she did play the role of having blurry eyes and coughing.
“Then, we were brought to the first floor, came out and (they) soaked (us) with a water hose,” she said.
Looking back on the experience, Lochridge said the fear was not present like it would be if the scenario were real, but the number of response agencies and the process made the exercise seem realistic.
“It also felt like a long time,” she said.
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