Practice makes perfect

Deirdre Newman

“Help, I can’t feel my legs,” moaned a student at Costa Mesa High

School, as she crouched in a corner outside the chemistry lab. An

explosion had just torn through the lab and the student was in such a

state of shock she didn’t even know her name.

The chemistry lab explosion was one of many that rocked the campus

Wednesday morning during a simulated domestic terrorist attack. The

exercise created an apocalyptic tableau as bombs sent mushroom clouds

of smoke billowing into the air and cars burning out of control.

The drill allowed safety and school officials to practice

responses to a terrorist crisis from the first blast to treatment of

victims at local hospitals. The Costa Mesa Fire Department organized

the exercise with firemen, policemen and emergency response officials

from all over the county responding.

Although the incident took place at Costa Mesa High School,

administrators from all of the high schools in the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District were on hand to witness the organized chaos

that ensued.

“These are the types of things that help us be prepared,” said

trustee David Brooks, a former captain with the Costa Mesa Police

Department. “It wakes us up to things like how long does the school

district really have to be the primary care for students before [it]

can realistically expect medical help? These are all part of the

lessons that are learned.”

The attack started at about 9 a.m., when an explosion went off in

the chemistry lab. Then smoke bombs went off in garbage cans and two

cars on campus burst into flames. Because the office was filled with

smoke, administrators could not ring the customary alarm, so it was

up to each classroom teacher to respond on his or her own, leading

their class to the football field by snaking their way around the

fiery obstacles.

The evacuation of almost 1,900 students only took about 20 minutes

said co-principal Fred Navarro. About 150 “victims” were involved in

the attack, but they were played by students with simulated attack

experience from other high schools and colleges.

Once the Costa Mesa High students were herded onto the field, they

were isolated from the havoc raging around them. One group of

Advanced Placement calculus students actually took a test during the

response efforts.

Navarro said this was to keep the school’s students safe.

“We have our own evacuation drill that we’re still putting

together to practice our triage and emergency aid and that we’ll be

doing later in the year,” Navarro said. “Students will be a part of

that. This was a countywide exercise. Our role was to provide the

facility, the evacuation for them. With all of the combustible

materials on campus, our kids had to be put away.”

While the Costa Mesa students tended to their classwork, emergency

personnel dealt with victims in various states of injury spread out

through the campus, prioritizing those who needed immediate

attention. About 85 firemen responded from units including Costa

Mesa, Fountain Valley, Anaheim and Huntington Beach. Thirteen local

hospitals set up simulated treatment areas. Observers from the

county’s terrorist early warning group and FBI agents also witnessed

the disaster unfold.

Outside the chemistry lab, firemen wearing gas masks waited for a

hazardous materials team to arrive while the students writhed in pain

on the ground. Many had fake burn marks on their arms and blood on

their clothing. When some of the victims got up in a daze and started

wandering around, the firemen would direct them back to the

contaminated area to wait.

Once the decontamination team arrived, the students were hosed off

and received Mylar space blankets to keep them warm, creating a scene

reminiscent of a science-fiction movie.

Jenny Dinh, 17, a student in Westminster High School’s health

academy program, played one of the contaminated victims. She had burn

marks on her face and arms and was huddled with two other victims in

one of the blankets.

“The hardest thing is not being noticed when you need help and

it’s cold,” Dinh said. “There’s too many of us and not enough of

them.”

Dinh said playing a victim helped her gain more insight into

different facets of the medical field.

As the response effort progressed, a convoy of fire trucks and

ambulances drove onto the quad area to help. A helicopter also

circled overhead providing a live feed of the recovery efforts to the

command center, an invaluable resource, Brooks said.

“Instead of having a mental picture, [the commander] can actually

see three or four parts of the incident,” he said. “Before, he always

had to work with word pictures or what he thinks is going on.”

It took up to about 2 1/2 hours to fully clear the scene.

Afterward, all the involved parties met with each other and with

Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials to debrief and look

for areas that need improvement, said Assistant Supt. Jaime

Castellanos.

Costa Mesa Fire officials said they were proud of the way various

agencies collaborated during the response effort.

“It felt almost like the real thing with all this adrenalin

going,” said Barbara Marcosa, the department’s spokeswoman. “I think

every time we do this, we get better at it and, in the event of a

real incident, hopefully it will not be too much different than the

way we trained.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].