By Jolene FarleyThe terrorism response drill in Hills Saturday was a learning tool for the emergency personnel and agencies involved."Overall, after our critique, most thought it was a positive experience," said Dan Nath, coordinator of the drill, sponsored by the Rock County Hazardous Materials Team.Nath, a member of the Luverne Fire Department, said it was surprising how much manpower was needed for the simulation. Fifty people participated in the drill. "Manpower was a surprise to everybody. Just how much manpower would be needed to support all of the objectives in an actual situation," Nath said."Communication was by far the area we had the most control over, but it?s also probably the area everybody wanted to see improvement in."The drama unfolds ?This year?s drill occurred at the fictitious "Hills Grain Processors," a grain handling station that also deals in chemical application for farms and fields. Hills Grain receives and stores grain for shipment on the railroad system that has a rail spur adjoining their property.The company receives and stores chemicals in liquid, dry and bulk form until it sells and applies chemicals.Two fictitious employees (volunteers Matt Nath and Brian Deutsch) of the company noticed a brown, older four-door sedan leaving the premises and noticed the strong odor of anhydrous ammonia.As the emergency drill played out, one worker was overcome by fumes, but the other worker was able to reach a phone and call 911. Both workers suffered severe respiratory injuries.After donning protective clothing, the conscious employee was able to extract his co-worker from inside the area of gas.The Hills Fire Department, Rock County Ambulance and Rock County Law Enforcement were dispatched to the scene.Using the above scenario, emergency personnel had to determine a course of action. Saturday?s weather conditions (cold, gusty winds with light snow) needed to be factored into rescue operations throughout the drill. The next leg of the drill, after the Hills Fire Department arrived on the scene, included a mock explosion with an unknown cause in a storage shed near the anhydrous tank. The explosion "brought down" two Hills Fire Department personnel. They initially were unresponsive.Contents of the shed were unknown, and a large cloud of white to cream colored dust and a dark liquid were released and scattered in a large perimeter around the building toward the anhydrous tank.In the third leg of the drill, the Rock County Hazardous Materials Team was dispatched, as well as additional fire departments from the county and County Civil Defense Director Kyle Oldre.Information was passed on to the Haz-Mat team about the chemicals. In the fourth leg of the drill, an e-mail was sent to several news agencies regarding the explosion. A television news crew arrived on the scene to cover the explosion.The crew received a fax from a terrorist group claiming credit for the bombings in Hills. Reporters asked to see the person in charge to pass on this information.Learning from the drillEmergency personnel were happy with how the equipment functioned, according to Nath.The decontamination tent, purchased last year, was tested for the first time in Hills Saturday, and Nath said it worked well in the cold weather. The drill helped emergency personnel learn to carefully evaluate the situation before proceeding, according to Nath. Forging ahead to save a victim could put rescue personnel in further jeopardy, similar to the situation during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."Some of us knew we were going to have firefighters go down," Nath said about the simulation. "That is the thing we need to train for ? the hardest thing to train for."Hills firefighter Stan VanWyhe participated in the drill this year and plans to participate in future drills. "It?s always good practice, you always learn something," he said."One thing you learn is it takes a long time to set up the Haz-Mat stuff. It?s a pretty timely process."Emergency personnel could participate in the drills many times and learn something new each time, according to VanWyhe.Last year?s drill was a bomb detonation at the Minnesota Veteran?s Home in Luverne."The big thing is not making the same mistakes ? that we improve over last year," said Nath.
