
Police, fire departments take part in emergency training exercise in Oak Lawn
By Dermot Connolly
More than 800 people from throughout
the southwest suburbs participated in a full-scale emergency training exercise
in Oak Lawn on Sunday, turning the Metra station and surrounding area into a
disaster zone.
First responders from eight
communities, as well as local students and medical staff at Advocate Christ
Medical Center took part in the exercise dubbed “The Guardians of Gotham,”
which was funded by a grant from the Department of Homeland Security funneled
through the hospital. Police from Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Chicago Ridge,
Burbank, Bridgeview, Alsip, Hometown and Metra participated in the exercises,
along with firefighters and paramedics from most of those communities, and the
Orland Fire Protection District. The Illinois National Guard was also there.
With a Metra train in position at
what is known as Patriot Station in downtown Oak Lawn, the events began with a
realistic-sounding explosion on the platform. When police rushed in, an “active
shooter” stationed on the fifth floor of the nearby parking garage started
firing down, apparently badly injuring one of the police officers, who fired
back before rolling behind a bench to wait for rescuers.
With media, local officials such as
Oak Lawn Mayor Sandra Bury and state Rep. Kelly Burke (D-36th) were watching with
supervisors from the fourth floor of the parking garage. Police and paramedics
then came on the scene to perform a triage by deciding which of those either
injured in the shootings or from explosions were the most in need of care and who
goes to Advocate Christ Medical Center first.
The 50 victims, mainly local high
school students, were seen coming out of the train station and nearby
Children’s Museum, either hobbling along or were carried out on stretchers.
Throughout the exercise, supervisors
were monitoring all the locations of action using software and cameras operated
by Securonet, a Minnesota-based security company. They explained that in a real
situation, the same types of cameras could be used in schools and elsewhere.
“It’s fascinating to watch. The scale
of it is amazing,” said Burke, whose office is located across the street from
the “disaster zone.”
“With Oak Lawn being the biggest
community in the area, and the hospital is here, we are usually the focal point
with disaster drills like this,” said Oak Lawn Police Chief Randy Palmer.
“Hopefully, we will never have to
respond to something like this, but the first-responders have to know what to
do. In the past, firefighters and paramedics would wait until the shooting had
stopped to move in. But since the mass shooting in Las Vegas, they are being
trained how to respond to what is called a ‘warm zone,’ when the shooter still
poses a danger,” explained Oak Lawn Division Chief Ross Finnelly.
He pointed out how the medical
personnel were being escorted in and out of the danger zone by teams of police.
Finnelly said the police also had to
learn how to open the train doors from the outside if the engineer was
incapacitated inside.
“Any opportunity to train for an
event like this is very valuable,” said Chicago Ridge Deputy Chief Brian
Galske.
“This is realistic, because what
would happen in a real situation. Personnel from all the departments coming
together. But they have to practice working together, so they will have
confidence and trust in each other if it ever happens,” said Galske.
He said the five Chicago Ridge
officers and a sergeant who participated will relay what they learned to those
who were not there.
The whole exercise at the train
station was wrapped up in about 45 minutes, which the police said was a good
indication of how efficiently everything was done.
The action then transferred to Christ
Hospital, about a mile away, where Dr. Liz Regan, an emergency medicine
physician and one of the first medical directors of disaster medicine and
preparedness, oversaw the drill. Media were kept away from that location, but
by all accounts, everything went well.
Hospital officials said that in 2017,
18 mass shootings occurred in the United States, including the deadliest in
modern U.S. history, when 59 people were killed in Las Vegas on Oct. 1. Because
Advocate Christ is one of the largest hospitals and level one trauma centers in
the Chicago area, Regan stressed the importance of planning for disasters by
educating and training hospital staff, and working with community partners to
prepare for such occurrences.
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