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EMSWORLD.com | JULY 2016 29 several hazards as responders must immediately ensure dis- oriented passengers are directed or led to a point of safety. In many aircraft incidents, passengers disperse across the airfield, creating further hazards. For those unable to exit the aircraft and for firefighting pur- poses, an internal attack and patient extrication may be neces- sary, which again requires considerable knowledge, skill and coordination. All immediate functions are the sole responsibility of the airport's fire and rescue services and occur before mutual aid arrives on scene in the seconds and minutes after an event. The opening phase of the RIC exercise put the airport's own resources fully to the test with the realistic scenario including live flames to extinguish. Establishing Command and Control With the declaration of an airfield major incident, as in the case of the RIC exercise, operational support and mutual aid began to roll in. A range of support reported to various locations on the airfield. Fire and EMS all reported to the designated air- field crash gate and were directed toward the staging area, while emergency management and law enforcement reported to the designated unified command. Roles and responsibilities and a common emergency language are contained within the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Agencies within the metro Richmond area have an added advantage in that they exercise those processes and principles regularly at such events as the biannual NASCAR series, the Richmond Marathon or last year's UCI World Cycling Champi- onships. The largest level of mutual support, providing position specific incident managers, was from Henrico County Division of Fire, the jurisdiction in which RIC sits. The division's deputy coordinator of emergency management, Anna McRay, played a major role in the development of the exercise and the ultimate success of the day. McRay also brought many willing volunteers from her CERT team to act as passengers and simulated casual- ties. On the day, 150 moulaged volunteers participated. Triage Back at the crash scene, with mutual aid units pulling in, casual- ties started to pass through triage areas and were loaded onto waiting ambulances or ambu-buses. As with every major incident patient tracking is a vital task both to inform as to the location of passengers who have now become patients and maintain the tally of how many START tri- aged patients went to which hospital and level of trauma center. The establishment of solid communications is a necessity, particularly to inform the organization providing hospital medi - cal control. In the RIC/Metro Richmond system, the medical control function is performed by the Virginia Commonwealth University, which identifies the destination hospital based on trauma level, bed state and overall capacity to accept patients. Families An essential part of the exercise was the opening of a Family Assistance Center. This essential function is located away from The Ambulance Child Restraint provides the safe and effective transport of infants and children in an ambulance, covering weight ranges from 4lbs to 99lbs. T: 516.321.9494 E: sales@quantum-ems.com W: www.quantum-ems.com Thankfully the child I belong to was wearing an ACR NEXT GENERATION Ambulance Child Restraint • History - 7 years proven track record • Open channel design allows complete patient access from the airway to the waist without un-restraining the child. • The restraint tightens into the mattress of the stretcher not into the child preventing any additional injury to the patient. • Compact packaging, the ACR-4 fts into its own 10 x 10 custom bag taking up less room in the back of an ambulance. • ACR-4 replaces the need to carry multiple devices to accomplish the task of restraining all size patients • Machine washable L 44-99lbs M 22-55lbs S 11-26lbs XS 4-11lbs SAVE TIME, SAVE MONEY, SAVE LIVES SOLUTIONS For More Information Circle 26 on Reader Service Card