Wheeler disaster drill draws 75+ emergency responders

By LeAnn R. Ralph

WHEELER — It’s every emergency responder’s worst nightmare: a school bus full of children hit by a train.

Fortunately, the school bus tipped on its side by the railroad tracks in Wheeler on Saturday, May 3, was part of an emergency disaster drill coordinated by the Colfax Rescue Squad and the Boyceville Community Ambulance District.

More than 75 emergency responders from Colfax Rescue, Boyceville Community Ambulance, Menomonie Ambulance, Boyceville Fire, Colfax Fire, Durand Fire, Elk Mound Fire, Glenwood City Fire, Menomonie Fire, Sand Creek Fire, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department, Dunn County Medical Examiner, and Dunn County Communication attended the drill, said Don Knutson, director of the Colfax ambulance service.

“Patients” who participated in the drill were from the Colfax and Boyceville school districts along with adults from Colfax and River Falls, he said.

“The drill was designed for agencies to practice working together to achieve a unified goal. This disaster with fourteen patients may not seem like much but when you consider in Dunn County we have seven ambulances based in the county, and if every ambulance carried two patients, every ambulance would be tied up for one to three hours,” Knutson said.

“We have to work together with a multitude of agencies in order to be comfortable with each other.  The other part of the drill is that fire departments don’t get the opportunity to use their extrication tools on larger vehicles very often in practice. So if the need arises they will now know some better ways to gain access to a vehicle,” he said.

“It really worked out well. There’s always a few hiccups, but it’s better now than later on down the road when it really counts,” said Brian Marlette, Boyceville fire chief.

“That was really a great thing Saturday. Everybody learned something from it. Don (Knutson) and the guys from Colfax did a great job of setting it up. We try to have one major ‘disaster’ every year. Last year, we had a Bauer Built (tire) disaster. Something like that could be a hellacious fire,” he said.

“The drill exposed some weaknesses, as it should, but it also pointed out the strengths we have between agencies. We have each other’s backs when called upon,” Knutson said.

Not overnight

Coordinating an emergency disaster drill does not happen overnight.

“Colfax Rescue was fortunate to have a great working relationship with Boyceville and between our two services, we were able to organize a very good drill; however, we could not have pulled this drill off without the cooperation of many, (including) Fairmount Minerals (Wisconsin Industrial Sand); the Village of Wheeler; Our Savior’s Lutheran Church; and Wendy’s Wheeler Inn as well as all of the presenters we have brought in,” Knutson said.

Emergency responders began preparing for the drill last October. A total of seven training sessions were held at Our Savior’s Lutheran fellowship hall, including NIMS (National Incident Management System) and MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) in October; dealing with the news and media in January; triage in February; railroad in March; extrication and safety of on-scene staff in April.

“The new MABAS system we’ve got going, all of our box cards, it’s all pre-planned out. With the disaster card, it really reaches out. We can get many ambulances from different counties,” Marlette said.

“The MABAS is awesome … for the small volunteer fire departments, it’s really a bonus. It helps everybody. You know that new $1 million ladder truck they have in Menomonie? (Through mutual aid and MABAS) everyone has the use of it if it’s needed,” he said.

Large vehicle

The disaster drill in Wheeler using a large vehicle “allowed us to practice in an emergency situation and then to step back and look at things we can do,” said Greg Holden, Glenwood City fire chief.

Holden agreed that the opportunity to practice using extrication equipment on a bus presented an exceptionally helpful learning opportunity.

The drill highlighted the need for a few tools that would be critical in a situation like that and helped the Glenwood firefighters know what tools should be purchased for the department, he said.

“Boyceville and Colfax did a great job of putting this together. Kadinger’s brought a bus. It went very well,” Holden said.

“It’s great training. We can never train enough,” he said.

The disaster drill in Wheeler on May 3 also coincided with Opening Day of Wisconsin’s inland fishing season.

“When you serve on the fire department, a lot of things like the fishing opener get interrupted,” Holden noted.

Those of us who live in this area really do owe a debt of gratitude to Kadinger’s Auto Salvage.

“I can’t say enough about Kadinger’s. They let us go out there and cut up as many cars as we want so we can practice with our extrication equipment,” Holden said.

“They donate to the fire department throughout the whole year by letting us cut up cars. They are so willing to help out,” he said.

“They have a guy out there, and when we cut up one car, he’ll bring us another one. Car after car, as many as we want,” Holden said.

Fairmount Minerals/Wisconsin Industrial Sand and Canadian National Railroad also deserve to be recognized, he said.

“It was great to be able to (hold the disaster drill) right by the tracks and the sand cars,” Holden said.