Mass casualty exercise planned

ere will be a mass casualty exercise taking place at the Saratoga Municipal Pool. The scenario will be a lightning strike.

According to John Zeiger, Carbon County Emergency Management Coordinator, this is only a training exercise to prepare emergency responders.

Zeiger discussed the hypothetical scenarios that have been done in the past. “I decided to go outside the box,” said Zeiger. “We are always doing hazardous materials — there were school shootings, there were accidents, so I decided it would be interesting to do a lightning strike down at the swimming pool because there are several symptoms that could come from that.”

Emergency responders from Saratoga, Ryan Park, Encampment and Rawlins will be responding to the scenario and the will also be a Life Flight helicopter ‘responding’ to the exercise and well as their ground crew to assist. They will be unaware of the specifics of the scenario; therefore, will have to be prepared for anything.

“The symptoms are going to be a surprise, the first responders know that were having an exercise, they know the time,” said Zeiger. “They are just not going to know what they are going to face when they get there.”

Zeiger hopes that doing these exercises will further prepare the public and the responders. “Hopefully we would have nothing like a lightning strike, but just getting prepared for those types of situations.”

The public is welcome to watch the scenario on Thursday — just remember it is only a drill and that no real emergency is present.

“They can most certainly come down and watch, yes. The main reason for getting it out there is that we don’t want people to panic.”

For more information contact John Zeiger at 307-321-1514.