EFFINGHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT - NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS - APRIL 2007

Disaster Readiness

Bill Grimes - Effingham Daily News

There was a fire in an Effingham subdivision Thursday.

People were burned, traffic was snarled and the fire department even lost its regular source of water during the conflagration.

Fortunately for residents of that subdivision, the fire wasn’t real. It was a scenario developed for public safety personnel so they would have a better idea of what to do in case a subdivision really caught fire.

The weeklong disaster training workshop was overseen by instructors from the Illinois Fire Service Institute in Champaign. Students included personnel from the Effingham police and fire departments, St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital, Effingham County Health Department and the Effingham city engineer’s office.

“We are learning what we need to do to be prepared for a major incident,” said Fire Chief Joe Holomy, adding the workshop covered planning, logistics, safety, financial and medical issues, to name a few.

Holomy said the workshop — which will be followed in the near future by a mock scenario in which personnel will actually be mobilized — is designed to get everybody on the same wavelength.

“We want to know how we need to be working together in a command situation,” the chief said.

Lead instructor Joe Gasparich said the workshop has two purposes.

“It’s about getting different departments to sit down and work together,” Gasparich said. “We also want to get them to work within a master plan for a large-scale response.

“What we are doing is trying to maximize their ability to handle an incident.”

Kate Weber, emergency room manager at St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital in Effingham, said the workshop “gets all of the entities in place at a disaster together, so we’re all on the same frame.”

Weber said potential disasters could include interstate fatalities, explosions, gas leaks, fires and many other types of incidents.

Police Chief Mike Schutzbach said the workshop helps all involved “get on the same page, when it comes to a large, disruptive situation within our community.”

Holomy said local officials are learning what to do before it is mandated by the state or federal governments.

“It is not currently mandatory, but it is possible it will become mandatory,” the chief said.