Menu
Disaster drill
McCook City firefighters and EMTs rush to a mock disaster at the McCook airport Monday night, part of the safety exercise coordinated by Dari Olson, safety director at Community Hospital. The “disaster” involved a spray plane hitting a fuel truck, causing an explosion at the airport terminal. It was done as realistically as possible, with the 911 call made at 7:17 p.m. of “something on fire” at the airport, the airport closing at 7:30 p.m., EMT’s coming in and loading “victims” into ambulances and Community Hospital employees called into work. Olson thanked all the volunteers who participated, noting that “without the volunteers, we couldn’t have done this.” A safety exercise is conducted annually by Community Hospital. “Burn victims” were children of staff at Red Aviation and Community Hospital who volunteered for the exercise. Shown conferring over a child at the collapsed airport terminal are City of McCook fire fighters, while McCook fire fighter Shane Smith carries out Jaylee Walgren, another child at the airport. Realistic-looking injuries included the “walking wounded” with minor burns and scrapes and children with embedded shrapnel and more serious burns. Agencies that took part of the exercise included the City of McCook fire department and police department, Red Willow County Sheriff’s office, staff at Red Willow Aviation and McCook Ben Nelson Regional Airport, TSA and Community Hospital.
