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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2018
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Cars piled up with mock victims inside provide a realistic experience for first responders during a mass casualty drill.
Drilling
down
By COLIN MURPHEY
The Daily Astorian
W
hen
it came time for Astoria High School
student Emily Herndon to put together her
senior project, she decided to do something
that could mean the difference between life and death.
Herndon is a volunteer firefighter with the Lewis
and Clark Volunteer Fire Department, so she designed
Firefighters with the Lewis and Clark Volunteer Fire Department transport a mock victim to a wait-
ing ambulance during the exercise.
and organized a mass casualty training exercise.
First responders from Lewis and Clark and War-
renton participated in the drill, which involved three
vehicles and nearly a dozen mock victims. Fire-
fighters practiced removing victims from pulverized
cars, even cutting the roof off one to extricate the
passengers.
Herndon said she was motivated by a desire to have
multiple local departments trained in how to coordi-
nate the response to a mass casualty event.
‘Victims’ pretending to be pinned in the vehicles presented a challenge to extrication
efforts by firefighters.
Volunteers wear makeup with fake blood and prosthetics
to enhance the realism of the drill.
Emily Herndon, right, comforts a young person playing the role of a victim of a vehicle crash during a train-
ing exercise she designed and organized.
First responders treat one of the ‘victims’ of last week-
end’s mass casualty training exercise.