So Emergency Services doesn't just include firefighters and paramedics. There's a whole other aspect we're not thinking about here. Disasters, Communitcations/Dispatching, Paramedics. When the tornadoes hit in 1998, the Hurricane trifecta in 2004, the blizzards of...well...we've never had one here but you get the point. So let's roll... :)
We kicked off the day at the brand new Emergency Operations Center off Partin Settlement Road in Kissimmee. We later learned that the building can stand 175mph standing winds. Pretty crazy! This building is just....awesome. We head back to the conference room where again, our love is paid for in Dunkin Donuts and Coffee. YUM! I have to give myself a shoutout here. I didn't get my Leadership Osceola polo on time since I work in Orlando, so I decided to have a little fun and dig out my old Teen Leadership polo. Don't worry I still have my nametag too...and its in my purse still from this past summer. Don't judge me. :)
So we're in the conference room, which is the command center for disasters in Osceola County so we're surrounded by 8 HUGE flat screen televisions where they are displaying our agenda for the day. Speaking of which, our fabulous day coordinator, Mr. Jeremy Donovan, who is the Assistant Fire Chief with the City of Kissimmee, planned THE BEST DAY EVER along with our day coordinators from all parts of the city who helped plan it! Huge shoutout to our group leader, Dan, who just finished a shift and then spent the whole day with us!
We headed over to the brand new Fire Station 1 (its actually 11 but will always be 1 to me!) that replaced their old station in Downtown Kissimmee near City Hall. They brought out the old firetruck (with working siren as Matt can contest) and then broke up into small groups for the morning. We covered fire investigation, fire extinguishers, a guided tour, their five star kitchen, a movie room and showing off their top of the line firetrucks.
We headed first to visit Mr. Hollenbach who worked as a fire investigator with his partner Sarah. He did a great demonstration with her showing how she's helped put many criminals behind bars. She even gets her own badge.
Sarah has gone through extensive training to smell arsenals so she decided to show off her skills with us. We put some fuel on Matt's shoe, clearly the next top cologne on the market, and Sarah came over and checked each one of us out and sat right next to Matt's feet. She would do this on a site when for example, a house burned down, to find the point of origin and ultimately the cause of the fire. She is rewarded with food and deep down I think she knows the real reward is putting those people away!
I've never operated a fire extinguisher in my life. All I could think of is that episode of Modern Family where Clarie climbs through the doggie door after locking herself out and Phil sprays her with one thinking she's a raccoon. Hilarious.
I learned a lot about the different kinds of fire extinguishers and that if you use one, you need to get it refilled by law or replaced, which sounds like its cheaper. If the extinguisher sits for more than a year, you should turn it upside down and tap the bottom so that the powder in it gets shaken up every now and then. Made me want to get a fire extinguisher thats for sure. Being married to an engineer, you never know what is going to happen!
Through their simulator, we were able to actually use them, but these were only water. We weren't trying to make a mess (like Phil). Here's one of my brave classmates, Veronica putting out the fire and me below (thanks Matt for taking pictures for me!)
After that, our small group hopped on the old firetruck for a quick photo and headed to the simulation where we were each given a job to perform in a real-life scenario. I was a lifeguard for 5 years with the City of Kissimmee so I thought I would be better prepared, but I had no idea. My job was to run this machine that has a built in AED and monitors the heart rate (the name escapes me at the time, LifeLink maybe?). So we walk into the room and this is not like any dummy I have ever seen. His name is Chester (at least that is what his wife Donna (Sines) called him) and by the end of the scenario, we learned he could talk, cry, have a runny nose, bleed out, vomit and even have a seizure. They have come a long way since my guarding days. It was all computer controlled and after it was over, Dan showed us how he speaks. Watch the video below you can hear it.
The coolest part about Chester, is that he was paid for through a grant that is funded by red light cameras. It is always good to see a return on your investment as a taxpayer!
Next up was the firetruck & station tour! Totally took me back to 2nd grade where my Dad got to give my class a tour around the station and the truck. I was the only student who knew why there were three refrigerators...A, B and C shift. :) Also, I proclaimed to know how to cook during the safety presentation.. which I am sure made him proud until I said I could cook peanut butter and jelly & ramen noodles. I know, Top Chef in the making! So we got to see their sleeping quarters and I heard one of the firefighters say how he loves telling people he gets to "sleep on the job" which was pretty funny.
We head out to the truck where the Engineer shows us all the handles and pockets and hoses and all kinds of tools and hiding places for different things. The truck holds a tank of its own, but they hope to hook up to a fire hydrant. He said out of 100 calls, 90 of them will be medical and 10 would be actual fires, but regardless, the medic always goes to the fire just in case. He let us hop inside the truck and have a look around which was cool because now I'm actually old enough to know that I shouldn't push any buttons...that story needs a whole other entry... :)
Up next we visited Osceola Regional Medical Center near Downtown Kissimmee and as we pulled up, we walked through this white tent with all kinds of black tubing and sprinklers in it. Talk about a warm welcome...we had no idea what was going on. We walked into a conference room and were served a really healthy lunch which I was super appreciative of given the WW plan. :) Turn's out our host for the day was Mrs. Livingston who has kids I went to school with at OHS and UF so we got to catch up a bit. We met a few of the hospital's dignitaries including their new CEO, Kathryn Gillette. It was cool to hear her speak about how influential these Leadership Programs are to the community. Excited to see what she has in store for the hospital.
After that, we learned everything about the Hospital's DECON and Heart Insititute/Cardiac Care. DECON kicks in when someone shows up at the hospital with a toxic chemical on them and precautions have to be taken so that they don't expose others to the same symptoms. They have a trailer full of DECON equipment and we got a little taste of what that is like..see me below in the latest fashion attire for DECON season...(Photo Credit to Mr. Tom Maurer!)
We ended the tour at the Cath lab where they bring heartattack patients (and in record time too! they are less than half the state requirement!) As soon as they get a call that a patient is coming in, they page the team and they are all ready and waiting within minutes. Incredible!
After that, we headed back to the EOC where we got to get our hands dirty and experience real life firefighter work. We suited up and used the jaws of life to pry off the roof and cut glass from a car. The knife they have cuts glass, "..is like butta."
So the life lesson I'm going to plug in here is that at this point in the day, you don't realize how much happens, just because its not happening to you. I cannot name one person I know that has been cut out from a car or has been through the DECON process, but it is learning about incidents like this that make you realize how many people it takes to keep your community alive and well.
Now that we're all half sweaty in suits that weigh 2x our body weight (and I want to plug in here that we weren't even wearing the entire suit), we head over to try our luck at the water hose. Let me tell you, at this point in the day, we are exhausted from all the fun and now we have to lug a HUGE hose across about 30 ft and knock over some cones. Now, mind you, my father was a firefighter...I, however, am not. But it really made me respect what they do because while I'm doing this for one day, they do it everyday, without complaint, and they are passionate about it. Below is Mary kicking some serious cones to the curb with the hose.
Next we left our suits and boots for a tour of the EOC Communications Center which is where all the 911 calls come in. SO COOL! We learned a lot about the building and what some of the Dispatchers go through. I learned here that there is a difference between a dispatcher and a medical dispatcher. A medical dispatcher is someone who has been trained in certain medical situations and has a small cheat sheet that looks like this to help them along on the call:
There is everything from CPR to having a baby on there! We also got a sneak peek at the software that they use on about 5 different computer screens. Another cool factor about the dispatchers is that their desks can raise up so that if they are getting a little sleepy or just need a quick change, they can stand up for a little bit. Talk about mission control!
After all this we went back into the EOC Media Room and on the table was a map of "St. Clara" that looked scarily similar to St. Cloud. We were told a real life tragedy had happened and with index cards that corresponded to reported incidents. We talked a lot about the hurricanes and tornadoes that ravished this town over the years and learned about some of the incidents that can occur during those events like spills, down power lines, trapped residents and accidents. We had to prioritize the events and figure out what to go after first and there were just SO many decisions to make at one time, but you had to make educated ones and decide what was going to keep the city the safest, no pressure right? Totally a great perspective on the EOC and how to handle real emergencies.
So like I said, this day was super special to me because of my Dad's involvement with KFD, but here are a few other perspectives on the day:
Veronica Malolos, Home Envy Realty Group -
It is ironic that a few days after our class was sitting in a "simulation room" with the Osceola Emergency Services, a devastating earthquake hit Japan that created several other post tremor catastrophes around the world including tsunamis and nuclear power plant emergencies. The day's exposure we had with Emergency Services really put into perspective for me how much a comprehensive emergency plan could very well go beyond planned expectations. I have a greater appreciation for the important and valuable work that the Emergency Services folks do all over the world. God bless all of them. A moment of silence goes towards the victims and families of the recent catastrophe.
Marixa Salgado, UCF Social Work Masters Program - Emergency Services day was an amazing day of information. We started with a fake man (dummy) that could breathe like a human - it was amazing to see the thought process that it takes to save a life when emergency services arrive on scene. I don't think many of us realized how an uncooperative family member that is hysterical because of what is happening to their loved one can actually slow down the process of saving the life.
We experienced, first hand, that holding the water hose to put out a fire is not like holding your lawn hose to water your plants! The strength of the water coming through that hose can actually knock you down if you aren't prepared for it.
I realized that we need to carry a small tool, that is easily accessible to us in a car, that has the ability to break a car window so that if we fall in a lake we will be able to quickly get out. I never knew how easily the side windows can be broken if you have something sharp. We also experienced how easy and quickly the "jaws of life" can tear apart a car so those that are trapped inside can be safely removed from the car.
We ended this amazing day with an exercise that was an eye opener. We needed to play the role of the emergency response team if a disaster ocurred. We were shown photos of the 1998 tornado and how it destroyed parts of our beautiful county. We are definitely blessed to have three different agencies work so well together to ensure that we are safe. The decisions that have to be made as to what is a priority and what has to be responded to later cannot be emotional, it takes planning, common sense and an unbelievable team to carry out.
At the end of the day all I could think of was the fact that so many people take emergency services for granted and don't understand that these people, whether they are coming to save your life because you had a heart attack, or because you are trapped in a burning building, they put their own lives on the line every day for total strangers that they consider their neighbors and their responsibility.
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And with that I think I will title this the LONGEST entry I've ever written, but that truly is only because it was one of the best!
Thanks again to all who keep this community safe!
Kelly
