Boy Scouts Aid EMS With Disaster Training Exercise

EMS spokesman Kent McKenzie said the drill, held at Camp New Hope off N.C. 86, involved more than 11 organizations, including UNC Hospitals, EMS, the Chapel Hill Fire Department and New Hope Boy Scout Troop 449.

"The overall goal is to give EMS workers practice in handling a mass casualty incident in a controlled environment," McKenzie said.

Robert Bosworth, operations chief for the Chapel Hill Fire Department, said the department sent firefighters to take part in Saturday's simulation of an exploding propane gas tank.

"Since we don't run mass casualties everyday, we had to make sure different agencies could interact together," Bosworth said.

Eagle Scout candidate Jason Dunn volunteered his troop to be victims of the explosion as part of earning his Eagle Scout badge.

Dunn said he learned organizational and management skills while preparing his troop for Saturday's mock crisis.

"The disaster shows that these things can happen, and this shows the steps in place the county has in case these events do happen," he said. "I've been going to planning meetings since July. I've been talking to my troop, e-mailing them and calling them to join the activity."

After receiving a call of mass casualties, Bosworth said a paramedic would arrive on the scene first and be established as the incident commander.

The incident commander's job is to make sure the proper resources are utilized in a hierarchical structure, he said.

"The incident commander takes the scene and makes it manageable, and what makes it work is how good the incident commander thinks strategically," Bosworth said.

He oversaw the incident commander during Saturday's simulation, but Bosworth said normally a fire department official would fill the position.

"Just because you don't function as an incident commander, if you understand the complexities of it, it makes you better in functioning in other tasks under incident commander," Bosworth said.

The scouts tied black, red, yellow or green tags around their necks to stand for different injury conditions.

Two of the five red-tag victims suffered life-threatening injuries and were taken to UNC Hospitals via helicopter.

The other three red-tag victims were transported to the hospital by ambulance.

During the demonstration, Chapel Hill fire fighters arrived at Camp New Hope on one truck and identified a safe helicopter landing area.

Although the event was open to the public, Bosworth said only agency members attended.

"No one was excluded, but the number of people you have driving by Camp New Hope at six o'clock in the morning is pretty slim," Bosworth said.

The entire drill took just under two hours, and, overall, officials said the event was successful.

McKenzie said, "This will help us in the future because most of the paramedics have never responded to an incident with more than four or five people."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.