Front Royal and Warren County first responders conduct mass casualty incident training at Christendom College

Personnel from Warren County Emergency Management, Warren County Sheriff’s Office, Warren County Fire & Rescue, and the Front Royal Police Department came together for three days of Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) training at Christendom College this week, taking an extensive review of what resources are in place for such an incident and how first responders can align their
operational responses to major incidents within the Town of Front Royal and Warren County.

“Preparing for this type of crisis is essential in the times that we find ourselves in,” said Front Royal Chief of Police Kahle Magalis. “We certainly hope that this type of training is never brought to bear, but the reality is that we must be ready if we ever have to deal with it. This is the first step.”

The training is the latest in a series of exercises that were conducted in the past year on separate key areas of responding to a major incident. An emphasis was placed on not only field operations at the patrol level, but also in Incident Command with a heavy emphasis on field supervisors understanding their roles in managing a critical incident involving multiple agencies. The exercises were developed to test the capabilities of neutralizing a threat, quickly addressing critically injured victims, incident management, and effective notification to additional resources.

Christendom College graciously allowed the use of their facilities to test these capabilities of area public safety agencies, while also integrating and testing their own facility’s emergency plans during the training exercises.

“It is crucial to be prepared for a crisis of this magnitude,” said Mark Rohlena, Executive Vice President of Christendom College. “While we pray we never have to implement our emergency plans, it is necessary to know that we are prepared in case such a situation ever occurs. We are grateful to the personnel of the Front Royal Police Department, the Warren County Sherriff’s Office, Warren County Fire & Rescue, and Warren County Emergency Management for their cooperation and assistance during these training exercises on campus.”

This week’s training resulted in a culmination of everything local first responder agencies learned this past year and put into practice. Responding to the scene of an emergency is never an easy task, but this training has better prepared the agencies as a result of these training exercises.

“These types of events simply cannot be managed by a single agency. I am very appreciative of the support from our local public safety partners and Christendom College in bringing this training exercise to fruition,” concluded Deputy Emergency Coordinator Rick Farrall.