Evacuation drills are for little people too!

Alexis Barker
NLJ Reporter
 
As evacuation drills go, Denise Bradshaw considers the one carried out Oct. 11 at Little Ones Child Care in Newcastle a “complete success.” The emergency management coordinator for the Weston County Department of Homeland Security, said the evacuation drill involved several local agencies. 
“Our drill at the day care started with just a staff visit about their emergency plans,” Bradshaw said. “We are reaching out to all our “at risk” partners, previously referred to as “unable to self-evacuate,” to see what their needs are and how we can assist them in planning for emergencies.” 
While visiting with the staff at Little Ones, Bradshaw said, she learned that the staff was already proactive and excited to put some of their emergency plans to the test with a practice drill. 
While planning the drill, Bradshaw said, she invited people from Weston County School District No. 1, Newcastle Volunteer Fire Department, emergency medical services, Weston County Public Health, Newcastle Ambulance Service, day care staff and emergency management partners. 
“We wanted to be sure and address any concerns parents, staff or even the children may have,” Bradshaw said. “Some of those concerns were safety hazards, traffic, trips and falls, scary sounds and lights, weather, car seats, accountability and, of course, finding a way to quickly alert parents if an emergency actually occurred.” 
The drill took place during Fire Safety Week, a week in which the children also visited the fire station and met with firefighters about fire safety. The situation used for the evacuation drill was a fire situation involving the sounding of a fire alarm, evacuation of the children and the response of medical and fire services
According to Bradshaw, the day care staff had everyone evacuated from the building at 330 S. Summit Ave and to the Corpus Christi Catholic Church on Winthrop Street within three minutes. The staff and children walked roughly 2 blocks from the child care center to the church, were they waited for a school bus to arrive and transport them to their secondary location.
“Everything we had worked on for our drill went very smoothly. The children were excellent participants,” Bradshaw said. “Fire and EMS were on scene within five minutes of the alarm.” 
According to Bradshaw, even some future firefighters and emergency services crews got in some practice.
“Fire got to practice and become familiar with the layout of the building, and teach some of their explorers how to clear a building,” she said.