Responders brush up on emergency coordination
Training session held for fire departments, police & first-aiders
BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer

Members of Marlboro’s police department, fire companies and first aid squads used this tabletop layout of a city during a seminar that focused on the coordination of emergency responders during a crisis situation.

MARLBORO — A training session for Marlboro’s emergency agencies was held recently to improve their response to crisis situations.

The event was held at the headquarters of the Robertsville Volunteer Fire Company, Route 520, on Dec. 4-5. The training sessions were hosted by Todd Lake, an instructor at the Command School Inc. of Pennsylvania.

According to the school’s Internet Web site, command tested facilitators guide participants through a battery of scenarios on one of many unique tabletop landscapes. The instructors assist emergency personnel in reacting to critical events in an environment that rehearses coordination, command, communication and interoperability without stress, without a huge investment and without danger, according to the Web site.

Marlboro police Sgt. Christopher Cherbini, the deputy coordinator of Marlboro’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), said the training helps the different agencies in town work as one unit and helps to implement a command structure in the event of a major incident.

Participating in the event were representatives of the Morganville Independent Fire Company, the Morganville Volunteer Fire Company, the Marlboro Fire Company, the Robertsville Volunteer Fire Company, the Marlboro fire inspectors, the Marlboro OEM, the Marlboro Police Department, the Morganville First Aid Squad, the Marlboro First Aid Squad and the Marlboro Public Works Department.

Also in attendance for the training were Mayor Robert Kleinberg, Business Administrator Judith Tiernan, Marlboro School District Public Information Officer Sharon Witchel, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Marc Gaswirth and Marlboro High School Principal James Mullevey.

During the training session, a model city laid out on a tabletop was used to plan out emergency response scenarios. Scale model props including police cars, ambulances and emergency personnel were also used.

The drills that were practiced during the event included a simulated motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Route 9 and Route 520 occurring in the middle of a blizzard. The accident also incorporated the involvement of hazardous materials.

Other scenarios included a school shooting based on the situation that occurred at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo., in 1999; an evacuation out of New York City; a double bombing, one at a school and the other at a local hotel; and two major fires occurring simultaneously.

Lake said the purpose of conducting the drills is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of responding agencies. He noted that the agencies in Marlboro should continue to work on communication; not only the physical ability to communicate with others, but also the line of communication and the chain of command being clear.

As for the evacuation out of New York, Cherbini said dealing with the possibility of sheltering and caring for 100,000 displaced people was discussed during the training session.

In this type of situation, Cherbini said, some of the solutions would include shutting down Marlboro schools and using the buildings for mass shelter areas, and depending on the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other support agencies to assist in setting up shelters. The sergeant said a real emergency such as this would require a community effort.

With the double bombing scenario, Cherbini said in this situation it was difficult to divide the township’s resources in order to resolve both incidents. The same type of issue arose with the situation involving the two major fires, he added.

Lake said with the scenarios, he builds the stage and sets the incident up for the emergency personnel to respond. Then he has a few things happen in order to make the incident occur. After the agencies are beginning to respond to the situation, Lake said he throws in a few variables in order to show the responders some of the possibilities they may come across in an emergency situation.

For example, Cherbini said, with the evacuation of New Yorkers into the area the officers had expected to receive aid from the Red Cross.

However, Lake’s variable was that the Red Cross was not available to help and therefore the officers had to figure out an alternate solution to the crisis.

Lake said he modified the scenarios so the individuals training for these types of situations were able to grow and learn more as the seminar continued. He said the participants in the two-day seminar became more effective at handling the situations as they continued practicing their response to the scenarios.

Lake noted that the partnership between the schools and the first responders is one of the best he has seen and is the key to the success of keeping children safe. Marlboro has that partnership now and it is very impressive and refreshing, he said.

Kleinberg and Tiernan said they believed the seminar was impressive and one of the best events the township has participated in.

When you are in a stressful situation your mind goes into overdrive; this training will condition Marlboro’s services to intuitively respond to any variable that may come up, the mayor said. An emergency situation does not give you an opportunity to think and rationalize about the situation.

Cherbini said although the police department had always conducted drills similar to the ones presented on Dec. 4-5 in the past, it was never done with all of the agencies that would be responding to a situation. He added that in previous years the drills were conducted separately for each service and drills with every service in attendance were only conducted once every four or five years.

“My goal is to continue this at least two times a year, to work together on scenarios to prepare for all hazards,” Cherbini said.