City of Westfield Exercises with Westfield State College

The City of Westfield has conducted two of three exercises with Westfield State College to test our response to a major emergency at the College.  The Scenario is that there is an explosion in the Laboratory of one of the buildings, and there are several victims that must be treated for injuries.   A tabletop exercise was held in October 2009 with attendance from the Westfield Police, Westfield Fire, Westfield Emergency Management, Massachusetts State Police, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, Medical Reserve Corps, and Noble Hospital.

The Westfield Public Schools had several individuals attend as observers so they could understand how they may operate and the challenges we may face if a similar incident were to occur at a school.  Westfield State College established a Command Center to address issues that the college must respond to.   In addition, they provided a representative to be in the Incident Command Center, and the exercise enabled individuals to test their skills in responding and working with others in an Incident Command Structure.

During the functional exercise, the focus was on the flow of information between the college and the Incident Command Table and between the Incident Command Center and the Emergency Personnel who would be on site.   After each exercise, a discussion was held on lessons learned and this information is used to build the After Action Report (AAR) and will be the guide to use to develop the plans for the full scale exercise scheduled for May 2010. 

Attendees at the exercise said they felt they learned a lot about how they can better respond to an emergency at the college and how they need to ensure that communications is clear and precise.  The college has developed an excellent Command Structure with representation from key areas of the college to provide input as needed and to allow the staff to have the information needed to protect the students and provide accurate information to the parents and to emergency personnel.

The final phase of the exercise will be an actual response exercise and will be a realistic test of the City's capability to respond to a major incident, work with the local hospital and communicate with the college.    Announcements concerning the exercise will be in the local newspapers as the event nears.  If you have questions concerning the exercise, please contact the Westfield Emergency Management Director at 568-1222.