February Mira Mesa CERT Drill

Just a quick wrap-up of our 10th of the month drill which focused on Mass Casualty Incident / Medical Triage. As always, we met at the team rally point at the Mira Mesa Rec Center near SDFD's Station 38.

THE DRILL SCENARIO: Scripps, Poway and Penasquitos CERT's have been activated due to a military plane crash and resulting brush fire. They are being tasked with search, rescue and evacuation duties. Mira Mesa CERT has been tasked as SDFD's CERT Division 4 and will handle Medical Triage duties. The American Red Cross will take over those duties in approximately 4 hours when they have established their shelter in Mira Mesa High School. Transport of the victims to our location will be handled by the other CERT Divisions. We could expect helo pickup of our most critical victims in about an hour and will need to provide transport to MMHS of the remainder once ARC is ready to receive them. Note: THIS WAS A DRILL NOT AN INCIDENT!

We worked through what was needed for a full Triage area with check-in, treatment areas based upon our location and available facilities including knocking on doors and asking for blankets, etc. We also determined how curbside intake and confirmation of Triage status, transport to appropriate Triage area would be handled. Triage teams to perform detailed, once-over exams and periodic re-evaluations of victims were discussed. Out-bound transport including what would be needed for a Helo Landing Zone were also worked out. We also learned that even sunny San Diego can get cold... LOL. Having the right gear available is essential over the almost 2 hours we were there.

Join us next 10th of the month whether you are part of the Mira Mesa team or some other CERT - everyone is welcome but bring your Go-Bag because we "Practice like we mean it!"