First Responders Day — First responders attend multijurisdictional training to enhance knowledge

First responders gain knowledge through experience but also through training.

On Tuesday, Oct. 25, several emergency personnel from across the state met at Cape Girardeau Fire Department, Station 3, to attend a three-day incident command training course.

Jay Kurtz, a contract instructor for Missouri Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), teaches the course. He also serves on the National Incident Management Team for the Red Cross and is a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Kahoka, in Clark County, Missouri.

"The intent of this course is to teach responders, as those incidents start locally and begin to expand, such as a tornado that might span multiple counties and multiple states, how to interact with other agencies and other organizations as those incidents get larger," Kurtz said.

Kurtz said Missouri has statewide mutual aide agreements that are already in place.

Jay Kurts, a contract instructor for Missouri Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), leads first resonders in an Intermediate Incident Command System for Expanded Incidents training course.Danny Walter

"This was seen during the train derailment near Mendon, Missouri, where there were 200-plus injuries and four dead, and that local community had to call on statewide mutual aide," Kurtz said. "And most recently the brush fires near St. Louis."

He said when incidents cross multiple jurisdictions — municipality, county or even state boundaries — the authority of those agencies changes and how those agencies interact and cooperate with one another can sometimes be challenging.

"I like to say we give people a box of tools not a set of rules," Kurtz said.

He said one of those tools is building relationships with other agencies. Another is using consistent incident management structure, that can be flexible and dynamic regardless of the size or the nature of an incident, such as a fire verses a hazmat incident verses an active shooter incident.

"All of those can expand, and we give them tools that allow them to understand the flexibility of that structure regardless of the size or nature," Kurtz said.

Those attending the course came from several agencies, such as fire and police departments and health, safety and water departments.

Steve Worley, with St. Francois County 911 dispatch, said he hoped to gain more understanding of all the levels of incident command. He said he was recently on a command bus on site at a large event helping coordinate all the police, fire and ambulance personnel. He said he found communication challenging.

"There were a lot of unfamiliar terms specific to each department I had to learn that day," Worley said.

Another attendee was Robin Blount, Emergency Programs secretary for St. Louis County Department of Public Health. She said one reason she was taking the course was to fulfill requirements needed for promotion. She also said because of several recent incidents in the St. Louis area she saw how important it is to be trained on what to do in any situation.

"We had some flash-flood response recently, and that kind of motivated me," Blount said. "Just seeing everything that happened recently in St. Louis — flash floods, fires and an active shooter — it's imperative that we know what we're doing when we're called in on these situations."

Linda Doerge, emergency response planner for Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, was sharing instructor duties with Kurtz on Tuesday. Before working with the health department, Doerge was a police officer at Southwestern Illinois College. She said she's had experience with local and regional incident command situations.

"You name, it I've done it," Doerge said. "Ice storms, pet sheltering, human sheltering, setting up regional coordination centers."

She said one of the most important subjects covered in the course is how to balance communication, such as what can and cannot be related to the public.

"We want the public to know what's going on so they don't stumble into a bad situation," Doerge said. "At the same time, we don't want them responding to a situation they are not prepared to respond to."

She said Southeast Missouri is blessed with people who want to help, but sometimes they don't realize they're stepping in over their heads.

Doerge has been training first responders since 2003 and said she considers it important to help them have as much knowledge as possible for their own safety as well as others.

"First responders are angels right here on Earth," Doerge said. "Many of the people taking this course, this is their day off, and they could be home with their families. So, they're here learning to do things better so they can keep people safe."