‘Better prepared for a disaster’
Ryan Frazee, right, with Washington County Public Safety, talks with area officials about disaster equipment the county has on-hand. From left are Jeffrey Yates, director of Washington County Public Safety; Ron Sicchitano, deputy director of Washington County Public Safety; Tim Warco, county coroner; Steve Emery, West Finley fire chief and EMT; and Arbie Goings, consultant for Homeland Security. A variety of units was on display for emergency officials outside the South Strabane fire hall on Oak Spring Road Tuesday.
Ryan Frazee of Washington County Public Safety sets up the fatality management trailer for display at the South Strabane Township fire hall on Oak Spring Road Tuesday.
If a tour bus overturned on one of the interstate highways, killing many passengers, or a jet came crashing to the ground, Washington County emergency responders are better equipped to respond than many of their counterparts in other rural counties.
Washington County Department of Public Safety and Coroner Tim Warco hosted a seminar dealing with mass disasters Tuesday. Resources are not as readily available in rural communities, said Jeffrey Yates, public safety director for the county.
“But we are better prepared for a disaster than most people give us credit for,” Yates said. “Anytime there is a bus crash or an airplane goes down or any sort of disaster with multiple fatalities, it can be overwhelming for local responders.”
Warco said the public does not appreciate the resources available to the county, including the use of one of three mobile trailers from the state coroners’ association that gives coroners and medical examiners the ability to conduct autopsies or chemical testing at the scene.
The county is also one of six counties in Region 13, which takes in Western Pennsylvania, with fatality management trailers serving as temporary morgues holding about 20 bodies in the event of major fatalities. Other trailers, housed in Allegheny, Armstrong, Indiana, Mercer and Westmoreland counties, can be moved if necessary if there is a mass disaster. Warco has dozens of body bags for use in the trailers.
“It is something you hope you never need,” Warco said. “But you have to be ready.”
Arbie Goings of the federal Department of Homeland Security’s Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium, which sponsored the event, said planning for these emergencies is crucial. “If these communities had plans, hopefully they will go back and work on improving them,” said Goings, who led the seminar, “and if they don’t, get some plans put together.”
Warco noted many flights to and from Pittsburgh International Airport travel right over communities in the county.
The county’s Department of Public Safety can also respond to hazardous materials incidents, do trench rescues, structural collapses, high-angle rescues and swift water rescues that could come into play during a mass casualty incident, Yates added.
The county also has a decontamination tent Yates said can accommodate nonambulatory victims.
“If necessary, we could put them on long boards and take them through,” he said.
The county is also taking delivery of a second decontamination trailer that would be used by emergency responders.
Yates said the county’s team responded to help when Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville Sept. 11, 2001.
“We had one of the more elite crews because they had more training,” Yates said.
Ron Sicchitano, deputy director of public safety, was one of those who responded to the Somerset County crash. He said it was overwhelming for the local communities until additional support started arriving.