MAHONING COUNTY Disaster exercise hones skills

The activities were part of a drill to gauge response to a simulated explosion.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- In a drill, a chemical leak caused an explosion this morning that killed more than a dozen people and injured twice that many.
Police chased two suspected terrorists through the city's East Side, wounding one of them in a gunbattle.
And a healthy 10-year-old Boy Scout from Poland Township was transformed into a 43-year-old woman with respiratory distress.
Fortunately, none of it was real.
It was all part of the largest disaster-preparedness training exercise in Mahoning County history, said James Dorman, Boardman fire chief.
How it was done
Some 150 local safety and emergency personnel took part in the exercise, which involved a fake chlorine leak and explosion at the Youngstown water treatment plant on Poland Avenue.
An additional 140 volunteers, including several Boy Scouts, acted as victims. Each carried a small card indicating the name, age, gender, injuries and vital signs of the victim they portrayed.
"I got hit in the chest with a chunk of concrete," said 10-year-old Eric Starr with a sheepish smile. He was assigned the identity of the 43-year-old woman.
Dorman said the idea was to put local emergency responders through the paces just as if they were responding to an actual emergency. They will then evaluate their performance and look for areas that need improvement.
"We know all these firemen can drive trucks and drag hose and set up ladders," said Walter Duzzny, director of the county emergency management agency. "What we're looking for today is leadership skills."
Under Dorman's dreamed-up scenario, two men wearing camouflage fatigues and wearing sidearms were seen parking a van outside a chemical storage building at the treatment plant, getting out and running away.
A short time later, there was an explosion, causing a release of chlorine gas into the air. If it had been real, residents on the East Side would have been instructed to stay indoors, close their windows and turn off their air conditioners.
Police would eventually track down the suspects and engage them in a gunbattle. One would be shot and taken to a local hospital, and the other would get away, Dorman said.
Long planning
It took him six months to plan the events, which he periodically fed to the emergency crews this morning over his radio. None of them knew what was coming until he announced it.
"This is the best way to find out what we would do right in an actual emergency, and where we need to get better," he said.
bjackson@vindy.com