RUMFORD — First responders from Rumford and the surrounding area will participate in a simulated active-shooter exercise at Mountain Valley High School on Thursday.
The event is sponsored by the Oxford County Emergency Management Agency.
The event begins at 9 a.m. at the school and first responders will be seen throughout Rumford during the exercise. It will conclude at 3 p.m. Access to the high school will be restricted during the exercise and students will not be present.
Mexico Fire Chief Gary Wentzell recently spoke about the event at a Mexico Board of Selectmen meeting.
“They put the school in a lockdown. The state police will go in. Bob (Chase, Rumford fire chief) will be setting up a command center down by the skating rink end of Hosmer Field. Then we have to block certain streets off, to keep the public from getting in, parents from trying to get into the school.
“This is something we’ve been working on for awhile. It will be pretty interesting. To have departments work together and have good communications,” he said.
Rumford police and fire departments and Med-Care Ambulance will take the lead on this exercise. These agencies will integrate with other local law enforcement agencies, fire departments and rescue services to coordinate response during the event.
Rumford Hospital will communicate with responders and incident command at the scene, and receive simulated patients at its emergency room.
Regional School Unit 10 staff will work with incident command to test their emergency plan and how they would respond if a similar event occurred at one of its schools.
According to Teresa Glick, deputy director of Oxford County EMA, participating agencies have been planning this exercise for six months. A tabletop exercise was conducted in February, which gave participants the opportunity to discuss how they would coordinate a response to an active-shooter incident and integrate into off-site incident command.
“The first responders felt it was not only important to train on how to respond to an active shooter event inside the school, but to also focus on how to coordinate resources and response from outside the school,” Glick said. “A strong incident command system is critical for managing an incident of this scale.”
Taking part in the training will be Rumford, Mexico and Dixfield police departments, Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, Maine State Police, Rumford and Mexico fire departments, Med-Care Ambulance, Rumford Hospital, Central Maine Regional Resource Center, Oxford County Incident Management Assistance Team and the Oxford County Regional Communications Center.
For further information about this exercise, contact Teresa Glick at 207-743-6336 or tinman@oxfordcounty.org.
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