Iowa First Responders Hold Mock Disaster Drill

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – Last year, a real tornado in June in Platteville nixed a planned tornado drill on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville campus in August.

“Obviously those plans were changed by a real-life situation and by August, we didn’t feel like we had to go through that simulation any more,” said Paul Erickson, a university spokesman.

On Monday evening, a mock disaster drill involving a simulated airplane crash on the campus took place. The drill was held in the Pioneer Tower parking lot.

“The intent of this exercise is to give us real-life experience in the event of an actual emergency,” Erickson said, noting the effort was a collaboration among officials from Grant County Emergency Management, the UW-P Police Department, Platteville Fire Department, Platteville Police Department, Platteville EMS, City of Platteville and Southwest Health Center.

“It’s chance to see how things would work in an actual emergency, how we coordinate together,” he added. “You hope these exercises never come into play, but if they do, we hope we are ready.”

At 1800 (6 p.m.), the Grant County Sheriff’s Department was notified by the Dane County Regional Airport that an airplane flying from Detroit to Dubuque was experiencing mechanical issues. They wanted to notify the sheriff’s department that they had just mapped the route and the Platteville airport is in the flight path, so they might be making an emergency landing there if needed. The estimated time of fly over is 1810 (6:10 p.m.). Grant County Dispatch notified the Platteville Police Department. Fire, EMS and law enforcement were on standby at the airport in anticipation of an emergency landing.

The drill included citizen reports of a low-flying airplane. At 6:13 p.m., calls to 9-1-1 reported hearing an explosion near campus, in the vicinity of Pioneer Tower and Russell Hall. Emergency response teams standing by at the Platteville airport were directed to the campus. The area was cordoned off and participants took the drill seriously. There were six victims, including one fatality. Several of the injured were contaminated with jet fuel. Police and EMS treated the victims at the scene.

“Checking their vitals, seeing if he or she is making it,” said Tonya White, Grant County assistant emergency management director.

A triage center was set up were the victims were sorted based on the seriousness of their injuries, with the most serious being treated first.

The plane, a large disaster services vehicle, was destroyed. The Federal Aviation Association was notified and was on scene.

Platteville EMS was joined by units from Belmont and Cuba City.

“If this was real emergency, Belmont and Cuba City (emergency response teams) would be here within 15 minutes,” said Brian Allen, Platteville EMS Director. “Dickeyville would be right behind, and Lancaster shortly.”

By 7:30 p.m., the drill was concluded, firefighters were storing equipment and White conducted a briefing.

“Things went well, about the way we expected,” she said. “As always there are some issues that come up, one that we discovered was communication between some of the officers that first arrived on scene, not knowing some were or weren’t there. Other than that, it went pretty well.”

Allen agreed.

“Overall, it went well,” he said. “There were some things were identified that we have to work on, but that’s the point of the drill.”

Previous drills have included chemical spills and an a shooter on the campus.

“Hopefully, the next time we get together next year,” Erickson said. “It will be for another drill.”