MOCK SPILL USED TO TRAIN EMERGENCY STAFF

A mock accident involving hazardous materials gave the Southeast Regional Local Emergency Planning District a chance to show off a decontamination shelter it is bringing to the area.

The accident was staged near the emergency room entrance at St. Francis Medical Center in a "Behind the Scenes" program for local business leaders.

As about 40 emergency responders, from police officers to firefighters to emergency medical services personnel, swarmed the "accident scene" that included three vehicles and five victims, one of which was contaminated by a malathion spill.

Mark Hasheider of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department called attention to how careful responders have to be when hazardous materials are involved.

"Emergency personnel not only have to worry about attending to the victim, but they have to keep from becoming a victim themselves," said Marcia Abernathy, director of emergency services at St. Francis, who was helping direct the mock accident. "Once he's been contaminated, the victim himself becomes a hazardous material."

So the firefighters rescuing the contaminated victim and the emergency medical personnel treating him wore special suits to protect them from the hazardous material as they worked to get the victim to the decontamination unit then into the emergency room.

The unit is an inflatable shelter that sets up in a matter of minutes with an air pump, said Dave Hitt, Cape Girardeau County emergency management director and coordinator of the Southeast Regional Local Emergency Planning District, which includes Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Perry, Madison, Iron, St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve counties.

The shelter can be set up outside a hospital emergency room or at the site of an accident involving hazardous waste and used to decontaminate accident victims, Hitt said.

"You want to decontaminate victims before they get to the emergency room so you don't risk contaminating the hospital and the staff," Hitt said.

There are many scenarios in which the decontamination shelter might be needed, Hitt said.

The mock drill Monday night simulated a traffic accident involving someone hauling pesticide. Hitt said this would be quite possible with the many trucks hauling hazardous materials along Interstate 55.

The "victim" in the mock drill was given a quick decontamination at the accident site by stripping him of his clothing and spraying him with water and scrubbing with a brush.

Hitt said spraying with water is the most common way of handling decontamination.

At the decontamination shelter at the hospital, the victim got sprayed and scrubbed twice more, once outside the decontamination shelter, once inside.

In addition, emergency workers who came in contact with the victim had to be sprayed with water and their suits placed in bags to be decontaminated later.

Hitt said in addition to trucks carrying hazardous materials, there are also many manufacturing plants and businesses in the area where hazardous materials are made, used or stored and any could be the site of a hazardous material accident.

It is the fees those businesses pay to the Missouri Emergency Response Commission that pays to train emergency personnel with the equipment provided by the Southeast Regional LEPD.

The decontamination unit used Monday night is a demonstration model the LEPD is using until the one it had ordered arrives in a few weeks. The unit the Southeast Regional LEPD bought will be 21 feet by 13 1/2 feet by 8 feet tall and have 280 square feet of space. It cost $11,400 and was paid for with a grant from Missouri's Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Fund.

"This is the first time we've applied for and gotten such a grant," Hitt said. He added other grants may be applied for to provide a decontamination unit for all area hospitals.

Hitt said training to use the decontamination unit is good for hospital personnel because it teaches them what to do and not to do during a hazardous material emergency.

"We hope we can take this show on the road and work with other hospitals in other counties," Hitt said.