Fire crews use town simulation for emergency preparation

The South Walton Fire District hosted a three-day simulation the week of July 14 for local fire departments that featured a mock city and emergency role-playing events.

Fire crews from Ocean City, Walton Fire Rescue and the SWFD responded to various hypothetical situations set up on a small-scaled city just as they would in real life.

“We had such things as a nursing home incident, a mass causality bus incident and a strip mall incident,” said Mark Anderson of the SWFD. “Our goal is to learn how to manage an incident.”

Those involved with the simulation hold such roles as sheriff’s deputies, staging crew, fire truck operators, public information and even media reporters.

The simulation is part of the National Incident Management System and is set up through the Department of Homeland Security. This was the first year Walton County representatives took part in the training.

“You plan for the worst and hope for the best because you have such things as bridge collapses (in Minnesota), tanker crashes etc.,” said Bryan Long of Command School TTX, who’s company provided the scaled city.

“We figure if we practice in these known situations we can prepare for them,” he said.