School Employees Learn The Art Of Disaster Response

Denny Dorum recalls the day the ground shook under him during the Nisqually earthquake of February 2001.

In light of , tsunami and nuclear power-plant disasters, Dorum, grounds and maintenance supervisor at in University Place, plans to be ready for the “next one.”

He and 59 other public- and private-school employees throughout Pierce County spent Saturday learning basic emergency first-responder techniques at Hunt Middle School in Tacoma.

Kevin Allpress is a fifth-grade teacher at Crestwood Elementary School in Bonney Lake’s Sumner School District.  Allpress, who sits on his school’s safety committee, volunteered to attend the training program because it sounded “interesting and valuable.”

“It’s my hope to go back and share the information,” he said.  “If the `Big One’ hits, you do what you could, but I’d much rather have a bunch of people around me who have a bit of an idea.”

Marci Scott, who coordinated the event for the Pierce County Emergency Management Department, said 11 of Pierce County’s 13 public-school districts were represented Saturday.

“The other two are on spring break,” she said.  “Also, we could only take 30 people in the morning and afternoon sessions.”

The event actually was a hands-on followup to a classroom instruction school employees received last month.

Saturday’s two, four-hour training sessions simulated what schools might look like after an explosion or earthquake. Four instructors provided hourlong presentations and demonstrations on how to use rescue equipment, lifting heavy objects, search procedures and moving injured victims.

“This search-and-rescue training is the culmination of years of working with Pierce County schools to engage them in proactive emergency preparedness and training,” said Sheri Badger, spokeswoman for Pierce County  Emergency Management.  “Homeland Security funding was used to pay for this training.”

Bruce Carpenter, a training captain for Central Pierce Fire and Rescue and part-time instructor for Pierce County Emergency Management, led the session on proper use of pry bars, cribbing and heavy lifting.  The object was for participants to extricate a dummy from under a toppled filing cabinet and set of lockers.

“During an initial response to an earthquake or other disaster, if you don’t have a `MacGyver’s approach,’ you’re basically standing outside directing traffic.  You just don’t have the resources available.”

At the same time, Carpenter emphasized that Saturday’s training was only bare-bones essentials.

Allpress, meanwhile, said he carried away two key messages:

The main one was for first responders to ensure their own safety at all times.  The other point, he said, is that co-workers -- not emergency service personnel -- save 80 percent of the victims following a disaster.

“The big, well-trained crews that come afterward are usually too late for most people,” he said.