Local Fairfax County firefighters and police personnel had the opportunity last Wednesday to test their skills under real-life conditions during a drill in Tysons Corner. The drill was given added intensity because officials did not tell responders the extent of the situations they would encounter. Fire and police responders were told only that there was a fire at the building. Ultimately, they would encounter theatrical smoke that obscured their vision, mock victims and fatalities, and an armed gunman who “killed” the commanding officer and tested the group’s ability to think quickly and control the situation.
The mock scenario took several hours to complete and caused many residents passing the trial on neighboring Dolley Madison Boulevard to slow down to see what was going on. The event was clearly visible, as police cars fanned out over the area to secure and widen the parameter, just as they would in a real instance.
THE EXERCISE WAS QUITE A SPECTACLE due to the sheer number of fire trucks and police cruisers that responded to the drill with lights flashing. Gunshots rang out from blank bullets shot from a rifle on the roof of the building, and the SWAT team responded in full gear, including menacing-looking machine guns.
Capital One donated the use of a building on Old Springhouse Road, which is slated to be torn down, for use in the feigned hostage situation that rescue officers encountered.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chairman Gerry Connolly has been instrumental in creating public-private partnerships that locate real buildings for rescue personnel to practice in and on. “My office has been a big champion of trying to get the private sector to donate buildings that are going to be torn down, for practice,” said Connolly, who came out to witness the exercise. “The opportunity for this kind of training is invaluable. There’s a Homeland Security aspect to it, as well. This is a part of keeping the community safe,” Connolly said.
The density of the population in Northern Virginia and its proximity to Washington, D.C., means the area is under a mutual-aid agreement. Under that agreement, personnel from Arlington, Alexandria and Falls Church can respond to a call for help in McLean, depending on the severity. “This provides us with an opportunity to have all the agencies in the community working together, to see how they do and where we can improve,” said Fire and Rescue public information officer Lt. Raul Castillo.
“It’s always important when you can get multiple jurisdictions together. One of the things that makes this area so unique is that we get so many of these [drills]. We are probably better prepared than the average locality because of it,” said Fairfax County Police public information officer Mary Ann Jennings.
“THIS IS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE, so if they don’t do it perfectly, that’s fine. If you’re going to make a mistake, make it here,” said Jennings.
Fire Chief Michael P. Neuhard explained that the drill is conducted in such a way that responders learn from the experience. Officials from each department stood quietly in the background and took note of the mistakes being made that could have been costly in a real emergency. For example, after firemen realized there were injured people in the building, they allowed two of those individuals to walk unescorted out of the building and to stand by themselves next to a fire truck. “Who are those guys? They don’t know. One of them could be the gunman, but they just let them walk casually away. You can’t do that. Someone should be with them at all times. That’s the kind of thing that will get taken back and they will learn from,” said Castillo.
Given the federal government’s recent announcement that the terror threat level could be raised in response to “chatter” and other information, drills such as this one take on renewed importance. “No one agency will solve the problems of the modern day,” said Neuhard. He added, “We didn’t start this on 9/11. We started before then. Go back and look at 9/11 and Y2K. We started before that with training in these types of situations. It’s just as important today as it was several years ago.”
Officials decided to throw in as many twists as possible to the plot that fire and police would be reacting to, partly because there are not many opportunities to act out these situations in real time and partly because an emergency of this nature would be unpredictable and they want staff to begin expecting the unexpected. “There’s no circumstance where we can write protocol for everything that could happen,” said Neuhard.
“IN THIS SITUATION we have a distraught employee,” said Castillo. “In this case, the fire fighters don’t know what’s going to happen. Once they are inside, they will be informed. They will discover the victims and have to treat them. Then they will realize that the gunman is still inside and the building is not secure. That’s when things will get very exciting for them. That’s when they will start to learn, when they have to think on their feet,” said Castillo.
All of this happens while firefighters are navigating smoke-filled floors that barely allow rescue personnel to see and while they are stumbling over the office debris that was purposefully left in the hallways to mirror the chaos likely to be encountered in a real situation.
Castillo said, “The main thing is that we continue to exercise in as many different areas as we can. Training is the most important thing.”