Emergency Situation Up for Discussion

Emergency personnel, first responders and governmental support agencies spent the day working through an emergency situation while never leaving the building.

It’s called a table top drill. The Emergency Management Agency gives emergency personnel and other participants a scenario that could be one they would face in real life. In this case a flash oil well fire. The different agencies work through everything from how to contain the scene, to evacuations to rescue. It also helps agencies become aware of what each does and how they can assist in an emergency, especially in rural areas.

“Often you have volunteer fire departments and they really know what they’re doing, but may not be quite aware of all those resources that are available to them, so that they’re not by themselves,” said Chief Of External Affairs for the Ohio EMA Jay Carey.

Carey said they chose an oil well fire because there’s an increase of oil and gas drilling in the state. Last year there were five incidents involving a fire or explosion at an oil pad that the state was involved with.

“They industry is continuing to grow in Eastern Ohio. Unfortunately they’ll probably will be they’ll be an incident in 2015, so we just thought it was real important to make sure that everyone understood that everyone has a role to play,” explained Carey.

This is the seventh table top drill the state has conducted.