LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Fairdale High School students enrolled in the fire, EMT, and health academies geared up and responded to a simulated bus crash for a mass casualty training exercise.
The training is a yearly event for the students at Fairdale; however, it’s been on hiatus for the last two years because of COVID-19.
Organizer Dan Shirley said that he wanted this situation to be big; something that could involve all the students no matter where their interest may lie.
“It may be the biggest thing they ever do while they are in school for a lot of these kids,” Shirley said. “Some of these kids are not athletes. This is their state championships. It's kind of like the capstone of everything they've learned since they've been here and it is a big deal.”
Ramsey Ellingsworth, junior at Fairdale, said that he enjoyed last year’s mass casualty exercise, but this was on another level.
The situation this year was a bus crash, involving a hazardous waste spill and a police search for the driver who caused the crash.
Students played the victims, while their peers worked to get them out of the bus, clear the hazardous waste, and provide medical aid to the ‘injured’ students.
“Say if you’re reading a textbook, it’ll tell you like they may not be conscious and things might happen, but you never know how the patient is going to really react,” Ellingsworth said.
Brandon Underwood, junior at Fairdale, agreed. He said there was never pressure and everything just felt natural. He said being as hands on as he was made the whole experience hit home.
“It makes it feel real,” Underwood said. “The time to go up front, the time it took to get back here, the station, everything just felt real.”
Shirley says that he wants everybody who comes through the course to take something away from it. He says that not every student is going to be a first responder, but that doesn’t mean that there is nothing for them.
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