Prepare for the Worst Case!

We never know when it will happen—a bus accident, a chemical leak or a terrorist incident. There are many scenarios that could produce a Mass Casualty Incident or MCI. The goal in an MCI is to triage the injuries, provide immediate temporary treatment in the field to the largest number of salvageable patients and transport all patients to the hospitals in the most expeditious manner possible. This requires leadership, teamwork and coordination.

Our drill this week in Hillsboro involved Hillsboro Fire Department, Forest Grove Fire & Rescue, Cornelius Fire & Rescue, Washington County Fire District No. 2, Metro West Ambulance and Life Flight Air Ambulance. The mission was to practice this low frequency incident that can easily overwhelm first responders. Our incidents have differed each day. Usually, they involved a school bus filled with students. A collision (simulated) occurs with another vehicle or possibly two to three other vehicles of varying types. Students from various Hillsboro high schools and other volunteers presented simulated injuries with the aid of moulage, makeup and prosthetics applied to the body to simulate trauma injuries. The firefighters first arriving on the scene had to quickly set up a command structure and triage the patients. The incident commander had to order additional resources that would arrive in time to help them get the most seriously injured to area hospitals within the first hour following the crash. That often requires a well choreographed process of extricating mangled bodies from crunched cars without doing more harm.

The incident commander must delegate many tasks to firefighters trained in their respective tasks. Some will provide treatment to the patients. Others will coordinate the large number of ambulances required to transport 15 to 20 patients from a single incident. All this has to occur while ensuring everyone is operating in a safe manner.

Our thanks go to the citizens served by all of the agencies taking part in this week’s drill. Your support of them helps make the public safety network we all rely upon much stronger.

Glencoe High SKID Program

The 1600 students and teachers of Glencoe High School packed their football field stands for a special presentation by public safety agencies. The program is designed to keep teens alive through the prom season. Dubbed SKID, which stands for Stop Kids Intoxicated Driving, portrays a fatal, two car accident that follows several teenagers' involvement with the use of alcohol.

The scenes are graphic. They are intended to convey the tragedy of such an incident and leave a lasting impression. Firefighters from Hillsboro Fire and Rescue, along with officers from Hillsboro Police and Washington County Sheriff’s Office, teamed up with Metro West Ambulance, Life Flight, the Washington County Medical Examiner’s office and Fuiten, Rose and Hoyt Funeral Home to make the dramatization complete.

From the looks on students’ faces afterwards, the event had an impact. We are always hopeful that the prom season will pass without a tragic incident.

From the Washington County Sheriff’s Office web site: Since its creation in 1998, under the leadership of Retired Deputy Tim Moore, an average of six to nine SKID events have been staged each year on Washington County high school campuses. This has allowed approximately 82,000 students to participate in the SKID Program. During this same time period, a review of available data has found that there were seven alcohol-related traffic crashes in Washington County involving teen drivers. Of these, two led to traffic fatalities. Although any number of traffic crashes involving young people is unacceptable, the SKID Program has been effective in reinforcing the message that underage drinking puts young people in dangerous situations and can bring on disastrous and fatal consequences.

Quack! means Help!

Engine 5 rescued 2 baby ducks from the storm drain at Barberry and Linden on Friday night. They attempted to catch the mother as well and relocate them all to a nice new home near a pond. The mother would have none of this! We did not want her to give up and leave the area or injure her in trying to catch her. That would leave us with 2 baby duck orphans!

It was felt the best course of action was to get them all back together and let mom deal with getting them all home. That’s what we did and they all waddled off together and lived happily ever after. There are no pictures of this event; it was just too dark in the area they were.

We're Preparing. Are You?

On Tuesday, May 10, 2011, employees of the City of Hillsboro, along with those in numerous other cities in Washington County and county emergency managers, will conduct a countywide disaster drill. Dubbed “Sheer Dynamics,” it’s a practice run at handling a major disaster caused by extremely high winds and accompanied by flooding. While the drill is to test the processes of intergovernmental communication, coordinating scarce resources and informing the public, it is a good reminder for citizens to take a few minutes to do some preparation around your home in the event of a disaster.
Here are a few good tips to get you prepared in the event of an area-wide disaster:
1. Develop a communication plan
a. In some cases, such as severe earthquake and high winds, our communications systems could be heavily damaged. Have a backup plan to communicate with your family members if they are caught scattered across town. Collect and distribute to all family members the phone numbers of the most logical places where your family members will be on a given day. Distribute those numbers to all family members.
b. Select an out-of-state family member or friend as your emergency contact for information exchange. Often, local phone systems may be overloaded or damaged too severely to make a local call. But, if you can get a dial tone, you can frequently make a long distance call.
2. Create a Disaster Kit -- It’s often called a 72-hour kit because it should contain emergency supplies to last your entire family for at least three days. (Recommendation: Make a kit for one week!) Your kit should contain:
a. Food – select food that will last a long time on the shelf but will be readily eaten by all members of your family for three to seven days
b. Water – one gallon per person per day (don’t forget pets!) You can live for weeks without food, but only a few days without water!
c. Medicines – an emergency supply of medicines are essential, especially if you have a serious medical condition.
d. Battery-powered radio
e. Flashlights with spare batteries
f. Money (ATMs are useless when the power has failed )
3. Get to know your neighbors -- Determine their capabilities and resources and create a plan to pool and share scare resources, such as chain saws or four-wheel drive vehicles. Also, plan to check on and render assistance to elderly or sick neighbors.

There are many more tips on surviving a disaster at www.ocem.org. Simply click on Emergency Preparedness.

New Fire Chief

Chief Nelson Badge Ceremony

It’s official. Greg Nelson is our new Fire Chief. Mayor Jerry Willey presented Chief Nelson with his new Fire Chief’s badge Tuesday night at City Council meeting. Chief Nelson’s wife, Joann, pinned on the shiny new badge. She was accompanied by the couple’s son. Chief Nelson was selected by City leadership following an unsuccessful national search for a suitable successor to retired Fire Chief Gary Seidel. Following the badge ceremony, nearly 75 people attended a reception in Chief Nelson’s honor at the Civic Center.

Nelson has worked more than 30 years at the Department. He’s held every rank en route to the top spot.

Jones Farm Station

As soon as the rains let up (whenever that will be is anyone's guess), contractors should begin site preparation on Hillsboro Fire and Rescue’s newest fire station. The facility will replace the aging and too small Parkwood Station which does not meet seismic requirements for public safety building. The new station, which will be called the Jones Farm Fire Station, will be located on NE 25th on property leased from the Port of Portland’s Hillsboro Airport just east of the Jones Farm neighborhood and Intel Jones Farm.

The winning contract bidder, P&C Construction of Portland is slated to complete the $3.2-million contract by December 2011. Architects from Group MacKenzie of Portland designed the 13,458-square foot facility. Funding for the station comes from Recovery Zone bonds issued by the City of Hillsboro in December 2010. The firefighters’ positions at Station No. 5 are funded by the Local Option Tax. Those firefighters will move their existing fire engine to the new station when it is completed.

Primate Center Chemical Leak Prompts Haz Mat Response

Here is an example of how Automatic Aid works with fire departments. Even though the following incident occured in the City of Hillsboro, the closest responder and the specialty teams needed were crews from our neighboring agency, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue. While the majority of the resources were from TVF&R, our Battalion Chief and an HFD engine company were there to support and provide any additional Hillsboro resources needed.



News Release
A chlorine gas leak prompted the evacuation of an Oregon National Primate Center building in Hillsboro Wednesday morning along with a response from firefighters and a Hazardous Materials Team. The incident began shortly before nine when Primate Center employees reported a chemical leak. The closest emergency responders, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue’s (TVF&R) Engine 64 from their Somerset Station, arrived minutes later. They requested additional resources, including an engine from Hillsboro Fire Department and the regional hazardous materials response team from TVF&R.

TVF&R firefighters entered the building known as the Animal Services ABSL3 building, located on the south side of the campus and found two four-foot tall chlorine cylinders strapped to a cart. They shut off the flow of chlorine and began monitoring the air quality inside the building. The Hazardous Materials Team later removed the two tanks from the building and continued to monitor the air quality inside the building’s hallways.

Primate Center Health and Safety workers say they were preparing to disinfect a laboratory area with chlorine when one worker said she heard an unusual pop from the chlorine tank’s regulator as she opened the tank’s valve. She began smelling chlorine gas. She quickly activated the building’s safety system, evacuated fellow workers and sheltered the primates in place. The safety systems include a positive air flow ventilation system that prevented the leaked chlorine gas in the hallway from entering any of the rooms occupied by the primates. No one was injured. Firefighters began winding up their operation and turning the scene back over to Primate Center employees shortly before noon.