| This week's Monday night drill focused on “Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) Operations” for our Fire and EMS personnel.
A Mass Casualty Incident is an emergency where the number of patients can exceed the resources normally available to manage an incident, requiring an organized response and often assistance from multiple agencies. During the drill, Vista Fire Department members reviewed how our Department would respond to and manage an MCI from the initial arrival through the treatment and transportation of patients.
Members reviewed important components of an MCI response, including initial scene size-up, establishing the Incident Command System, requesting additional resources, communications, patient triage, treatment areas, patient tracking, and coordinating transportation to area hospitals.
Our Firefighters and EMS personnel also reviewed how their responsibilities work together during these incidents. Fire personnel may be responsible for tasks such as scene safety, gaining access to patients, extrication, and assisting with patient movement, while EMS personnel focus on triage, treatment, and coordinating patient transportation.
Mass Casualty Incidents require strong communication, organization, and coordination between Fire, EMS, Law Enforcement, and neighboring emergency service agencies. Training on these procedures helps ensure our members are prepared to quickly establish an organized response should a large-scale emergency occur in our community.
For more information on how to become a member, call (914)-533-2727, email us at Info@VistaFD.org, visit https://www.vistafd.org/content/become/, or apply online here: https://www.vistafd.org/apply. |
