Alison Matney, one of the mock victims in the simulated exercise, goes through the first stage of decontamination.

Emergency preparedness exercise held in county

Alleghany County, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) response agencies met at the Alleghany County EMS base on Saturday, Aug. 6 for the Alleghany County emergency preparedness exercise held that day.

Agencies represented included N.C. Emergency Management, DHS, N.C. Regional Response teams, police, all local fire departments, EMS, rescue squad, public health, local and area emergency management, county and town government officials, Alleghany Memorial Hospital and the local chapter of the American Red Cross.

The training scenario constituted a weapons-of-mass-destruction (WMD) chemical release inside the Sparta-Alleghany Fire Department, with a biological agent involving public health and stressing the system on the local hospital’s emergency department, according to Alleghany Emergency Manager Gerald Leftwich.

“This was a training exercise, focusing on a safe environment, simulation of a dangerous substance, team building and working toward preparedness should an actual event occur,” commented Leftwich. “This training involves continuous education and updates on equipment, training and preparedness and actual hands-on operations.

“By working in a controlled exercise environment we can assure self-protection of all responders, initiate incident operations under a controlled environment, implement or employ personal safety measures for all participants, test our incident command system for field operations, improve our skills and work together under difficult conditions."

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