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The drill, with a simulated eight deaths and 17 injuries, was a chance for responding agencies to practice their procedures in the event of a serious disaster, particularly their communication between each other.
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Winona Emergency Response Team members load volunteer Steve Baumgart into a patrol car Saturday after a mock treain derailment on Franklin Street in Winona. Baumgart played the role of a terrorist who sabotaged the train and caused a tanker of anhydrous ammonia to leak and contaminate the area. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News) |
Winona fire, ambulance and police responded, as well as area rescue teams, the state patrol, the Red Cross and other agencies.
Donnie Day, chairman and director of the exercise, was contracted by Canadian Pacific Railway to run the drill. Although it’s a simulation, packing a day’s worth of response into two hours, Day said an effective drill requires responders to take it seriously.
“They’ve planned a lot for this, but we encourage them to play the game,” he said.
Here is how the disaster played out:
At 7 a.m., a westbound CP Rail train derailed after colliding with a dump truck on the tracks at Hamilton Street. A tank car was punctured, causing anhydrous ammonia to leak and spread poisonous gas into the nearby neighborhood. (The train didn’t actually leave the tracks, and the dump truck was just a CP rail pickup that sat on the tracks at Franklin Street, where the locomotive was supposed to have stopped.)
Bystanders could see a smoke cloud forming around the car as authorities arrived.
The first to arrive was a police officer, who was cautious not to get too close to the contamination.
“Injured” volunteers — mostly students — were strewn about the scene, rolling and dazed in the grass. They wore cards around their necks, alerting rescuers to their vital signs and injuries.
Winona Senior High School senior Aaron Mueller was supposed to have back pain and a broken leg, but walked away from the scene.
“It was interesting and different than I expected because I thought we would do a little more acting,” he said. “But it looked like they knew what they were doing.”
The victims, exposed to the ammonia, were taken to a nearby fire truck with a decontamination shower. Only two of the role players actually jumped into the water on the cold and gloomy morning. The rest stood against a wall, laughing.
Active shooter
At the East Lake Apartments, the simulation was a little more serious.
An Emergency Response Team in combat gear and carrying assault rifles, entered the buildings in search of the truck driver, who fled the scene with a gun.
Snipers spotted him shortly afterward shooting a paint-ball gun and yelling out of a window.
The officers located the gunman and quickly arrested him. As the culprit role player, Steve Baumgart, exited the building, he continued playing the part of a deranged and concerned shooter.
“Did I hurt anybody? I hope I didn’t hurt anybody,” he said as officers escorted him to a squad car.
Baumgart, a retired member of the ERT and currently a security guard for Winona State University, said the officers “absolutely did a good job.”
“I never saw security breached and officer safety is number one,” he said. “I never saw police officers to shoot at.”
Bill Schjolberg, ERT leader, said the drill was considered an active-shooter situation, and their team was successful in their mission to find and detain the suspect.
“Our part was easy; we had no problems,” he said.
Including the “terrorist” in the drill meant it qualified for federal aid, said Jeffrey Johnson of Canadian Pacific.
Just like on TV
Once the disaster was cleaned up, responders congregated for lunch, joking about the morning’s events.
“The Winona police were nice to me; they gave me a cigarette,” said Baumgart, who laughed with the officers who detained him.
Day said he has done hundreds of drills and also responded to real disasters, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Hurricane Katrina. Saturday’s drill came three days after the Minneapolis 35W bridge collapse, which he said is an odd coincidence, but helps everyone realize the importance of practice.
“Many of the functions people were seeing on TV can relate to what we are doing today,” he said.
Day said he doesn’t comment on how well the agencies responded because it’s their responsibility to critique themselves.
“All of these go so well even if a mistake is made,” he said. “When you put all of these agencies together to work as a team, it’s successful before it started.”
Emily Kaiser can be reached at (507) 453-3541 or ekaiser@winonadailynews.com.
