A school bus, with an undetermined number of occupants, has overturned and is in danger of going into the Assiniboine River.
That is all the information the 911 dispatcher gave the 20 firefighters from the Fort Assiniboine, Whitecourt, Anselmo, Swan Hills, Goose Lake and Anselmo fire departments participating in a live-action training scenario hosted by the Fort Assiniboine department on March 6.
The fire department received the call at about 8 p.m. and less than three minutes later arrived on scene, aided by the fact the accident scene was just outside the fire department’s doors and the firefighters were already in their bunker gear.
Once at the scene, emergency crews did find a school bus turned over on its side and that there were four occupants, two children and two adults, all with undetermined injuries.
As a prelude to the exercise, firefighters were divided into three teams, lighting, medical and extrication depending on their experience and what area they would like additional training in. Senior members of the Fort Assiniboine and the Whitecourt departments oversaw each section.
Before firefighters could assess the state of their injuries, they needed to gain access to the bus, something that was hampered due to its backend, and its emergency door, having slipped into the imaginary Assiniboine River.
As a result, firefighters worked on securing the bus to ensure it wouldn’t slip further into the river and put the occupants and emergency crews at further risk.
Fort Assiniboine fire chief Jeff Schulte said although the school bus was going to be used in future training exercises, crews were free to enter the vehicle anyway they felt was necessary.
In the end, crews decided to first enter through the front windshield, as well as through the roof, about halfway down the bus’ length.
In the front of the bus were the two adults, the driver and a few seats away from there was another adult. Further down the aisle, closer to the back of the bus were two children, aged four and 11 years old. All the victims, except the driver, who was simulated with a training dummy were played by volunteers.
“All the victims will have name tags with their vitals and everything on it,” said Ashley Marcellus, Fort Assiniboine medical officer, adding because it is an accident scene, a medical responder’s first responsibility is to triage and prepare them for transport.
The live-actor patients also helped make the scenario more realistic by responding to inquiries from an informal script.
“I was yelling that my leg hurt,” said four-year-old actor Blakely Williams, while eleven-year-old Jaydan Williams who reportedly hit his head in the accident, told the first responders that he was seeing flying monkeys.
After the exercise, during the debriefing session, firefighters were invited to give their input on how the exercise went and if they would have changed their response.
All the firefighters involved in the roof extraction said they were surprised how long it took to make a useable opening.
“I didn’t know that there would be two layers of metal,” Schulte said, adding this is why he was glad to be able to get to practice on the school bus. “We have never worked on one before and this is the type of thing that is good to know before you have to do it for real.”
The Fort Assiniboine department hosted another training exercise, on March 13, using the remnants of the school bus, focusing on extraction techniques.
