Front Royal and Warren County first responders conduct mass casualty incident training at new hospital

This week, first responders from the Front Royal Police Department, Warren County Office of Emergency Management, Warren County Department of Fire & Rescue Services, Warren County Sheriff’s Office, Air Care, and Valley Health Systems came together for Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) training at the newly built Warren Memorial Hospital located off Leach Run Parkway.

Over the course of three days, there was over 250 personnel from these emergency service providers participated. Each day consisted of an active shooter scenario that simulated patients with multiple injuries. First responders specifically train on these types of incidents because it is crucial to ensure that all responding agencies can work harmoniously together to stop the threat and save as many lives as possible.

This is the second multi-agency training that has been conducted within the past year. During the first training event in August 2020 at Christendom College, it was discovered that there were some items that needed to be addressed to have a better operational response to a major incident within the Town of Front Royal and Warren County. Given an increase in active attacker-related incidents across the Country, Front Royal and Warren County first responders along with Valley Health personnel partnered together to facilitate this recent training exercise. Valley Health was gracious enough to allow the use of its new hospital to not only train the community’s first responders but also test the hospital’s emergency response plans during a major incident.

Chief Kahle Magalis of the Front Royal Police Department said, “We are pleased to see the forward momentum in this multi-agency initiative. Through these exercises, we are seeing improved response capabilities in Mass Casualty Incidents, specifically those involving acts of violence. We still have a lot of work to do and training to conduct, but the gaps close a little more with each evolution of training. I’d like to thank our partner agencies and organizations for all of their efforts in making this event successful.”

Regarding this County-wide training, Fire Chief James Bonzano stated, “We appreciate all the hard work and dedication of our law enforcement and Valley Health partners in making this training event possible. The threats of violence against our community are ever-changing. A fast, effective and coordinated response effort is vital in improving the safety of our community that can only be achieved by actively working and training together.”

Carolyn Trent, an Aire Care Flight Nurse, said, “We really appreciate Rick [Farrall] in including us in this training because in real life we would most likely be involved in these types of incidents. It’s helpful for our crews to experience how we would be integrated into handling a large incident.”