TOPSFIELD, MA— As you're walking around the Topsfield Fair enjoying fried dough and taking your kids to see the cows or maybe take in the Dock Dogs, have you ever wondered what would happen if a large-scale emergency hit? A fire? A ride collapse? A gas leak?
As the emergency management director for the town of Topsfield, Fire Chief Jen Collins-Brown thinks about it a lot.
"We belong to a Homeland Security region, and they have funding available for training," she said.
So, she applied for and received a $15,000 Homeland Security grant to do a tabletop drill to simulate how emergency services would respond to a large-scale emergency at the fair, and to find areas for improvement.
"It has to be a regional event to qualify for the grant," the chief said.
Administered by Homeland Security-chosen vendor Steve Meir, of MCG Inc., the inter-disciplinary drill, which was conducted at the fairgrounds, included:
- Chief Collins-Brown and Topsfield firefighters
- Topsfield Police Chief Evan Haglund, and other officers
- Maj. Christina Sampsonis, 1st Civil Support Team, Mass. National Guard
- Mass. State Police Captain Brian Moran
- Topsfield Fair General Manager Jamie O'Brien, and other fair staff
- Regional Dispatch and EMS
- Ambulance services
- Beverly Hospital
- AmeriGas, which abuts the fairgrounds
And others.
"We made the initial activity an odor of gas," Collins-Brown said.
But, then it snowballs.
"People are evacuating the fairground itself, kind of in an unorganized way, and then someone crashes," the chief said.
Seven to nine people are injured when a truck hits the crowd of people leaving through the front gate on Boston Street (Rt. 1). Then, the truck driver flees on foot, so a police chase is thrown into the mix, and hysteria is setting in.
In such an event, Collins-Brown said, there would be a lot of moving parts. Police, firefighters, and ambulances would come to the scene. Federal assets that monitor air quality during the fair would be engaged. Topsfield Fair officials would be involved, as would the Massachusetts State Police.
"It kind of played out where each person did what they would do in their profession," she said of the drill.
The simulation was designed to examine myriad questions. Where would assets be staged? Where would the injured be taken? Where would a helicopter land if air-evac was needed? Who would deal with the press? What if bystanders offered help? Who would be in charge of the scene?
"Just talking through those, so that when the real thing happens, we have a better plan," Collins-Brown said. "We tried to be as realistic as possible."
Communications, including hardware, software, radios, and frequencies, she said, are always an issue. Command structure can be tricky, too.
"Sometimes you have to be really fluid about who's in charge of the event, whether it's a police event, a fire event, a medical event...," Collins-Brown said.
So, the group worked on a joint command with one person from each discipline.
In the simulation, Collins-Brown said, the event ended up being an accident. None of it was malicious intent.
"I thought it was great," she said of the drill.
The next step is to produce a report on what came out of the drill and what actions can be taken to better coordinate a large-scale emergency response.
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