Scenario: Traffic accident with mass casualties and hazardous materials
GROSS-GERAU DISTRICT – A serious traffic accident involving hazardous materials and 25 injured people was the training scenario on Saturday at the former Ticona site in Kelsterbach (Airport City West). A so-called "mass casualty incident" (MCA) involving contaminated individuals was rehearsed.
Accident scenario as a starting point
The investigation was based on a collision between a small van carrying hazardous materials and a car in a residential area. A following bus was forced to brake sharply, resulting in a rear-end collision with two other vehicles. Fragments of the hazardous materials were scattered onto the road and onto the van's occupants.
350 emergency personnel in action
Around 350 full-time and mostly volunteer personnel participated in the exercise. These included fire departments from across the district, aid organizations, rescue services, disaster control units, practical instructors, and casualty actors from the DLRG (German Red Cross), the German Red Cross (DRK), and the Realistic Accident and Emergency Representation (RUND) organization from the Bergstraße district.
After the alarm was raised at 9:30 a.m., a realistic picture emerged: Actors portraying injured people were calling for help, screaming in pain, or lying motionless on the ground. Emergency personnel had to quickly assess the situation, report, and initiate measures: forming operational sections, setting up a patient collection point, extricating the injured from vehicles, providing medical care, and setting up a decontamination area. Only after the area had been cleaned up could the victims be transported to the hospital. Support also came from emergency services in Frankfurt, the Offenbach district, and the Bergstraße district.
Importance of cooperation
“The cooperation of the various helpers is extremely important and can be practiced very well here today,” explained District Fire Inspector Friedrich Schmidt to District Administrator Thomas Will, who accompanied the exercise on site.
First balance sheet
According to the organizers, participants were very satisfied with the exercise opportunity. A detailed evaluation by the exercise observers is still pending. This includes the analysis of 32 responses regarding the comprehensibility of the bilingual warning messages, which were tested after the exercise.
(Gross-Gerau-Red/PSGG)
Photos: Many "injured" people had to be cared for during the disaster control exercise last weekend. Photos: District administration
