Local safety officers spend day in Homeland Security training exercise

6/13/2012
BLADE STAFF
  • Homeland-security-training

    Members of the Toledo Fire Department conduct triage on victims of a mock IED explosion as they train at the Erie Street Market.

    The Blade/Andy Morrison
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    • Members of the Toledo Fire Department conduct triage on victims of a mock IED explosion as they train at the Erie Street Market.
    Members of the Toledo Fire Department conduct triage on victims of a mock IED explosion as they train at the Erie Street Market.

    Local law enforcement agencies are participating in Homeland Security training today in Toledo, Maumee, and Oregon.

    The training, paid for by a Homeland Security grant, is required by the government agency because of other grants law enforcement agencies have received.

    “Even though it’s a training exercise, there are still stressors,” said Toledo fire Lt. Matthew Hertzfeld who was at the Erie Street Market location.

    At the Erie Street Market, crews were responding to a mock mass casualties training scenario, playing out how crews would respond after an improvised explosive device was detonated.

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    Actors were lying on the ground, moaning and screaming, as firefighters tagged bodies — black for the dead, red for those with life threatening injuries, yellow for less serious injuries, and green for those with minor injuries.

    In Maumee at a police training site, five agencies with their SWAT units were responding to a mock hostage situation in which a Maumee police officer was taken hostage by an anti-government resident.

    Maumee police Sgt. T.J. Stratton, at the hostage situation, said the training will help local agencies coordinate in the event anything catastrophic should actually happen.

    “A lot of money has been funneled into Lucas County public safety,” Sergeant Stratton said. “We’re looking at ‘Has this paid off?’ and ‘Have we trained properly?’ I know the answer will be yes.”

    All of the training exercises are being monitored and evaluated by the government, Sergeant Stratton said.

    At Chemtrade Logistics in Oregon, HAZMAT and the Northwest Ohio Bomb Squad were responding to a mock incendiary device that was placed on a train carrying a chemical compound.