St. George Authorities Prepare for Mass Causalities Through Airport Exercise

We don’t want to think of the worst, but sometimes we have to be prepared for even the most tragic of scenarios. This is why the staff at St. George Regional Airport and the authorities of Southern Utah perform exercises meant to simulate accidents with mass casualties. 

According to a news package created by CEC Television, over 60 volunteers played injured civilians to help prepare emergency responders for such an accident. 

According to Fire Chief Robert Stoker, emergency responders use a color-coding system to separate the injured based on severity. 

The colors range from green to black in levels of severity with green being the least severe, and black being a fatality. 

There’s also yellow and red which lie between green and black. Yellow means the injuries are bad but not likely a fatality, and red means the injuries could likely lead to a fatality. 

In order to create an authentic situation for the authorities involved, the over 60 volunteers had makeup and prosthetic work applied to simulate wounds for the medical team to evaluate. 

Residents who lived in the area surrounding the St. George Regional Airport could see smoke and hear loud noises coming from the runway. These sights and sounds were meant to increase the simulated danger level by using fire and several emergency vehicles were called to the scene as well to assist. 

The St. George Fire Department commented on the exercise in a statement on Facebook thanking the volunteers for their work during the day. 

The SGFD said, “A full scale exercise per FAA requirements was held this morning at the St. George Regional Airport. Mass Casualty Training of this type is required every three years with an annual table top training the years between. We appreciate all those that have been planning this training over the past few months and all those that participated. There were multiple agencies and community partners that were involved along with great volunteers that were patients for the scenario.” 

While we would never hope for such a dangerous scenario to play out for real in Washington County, at least we know the authorities and staff at the airport are prepared for such a scene.