On April 22nd and 24th, the Maryland-National Capital Region Emergency Response System (MDERS) coordinated a structural collapse full-scale exercise (FSE) with the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service (MCFRS) and Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department (PGFD). The two-day exercise, held at the Search and Rescue Assist (S.A.R.A) location in Linthicum Heights, was designed to assess each departments’ ability to establish command and jointly respond to a simulated warehouse collapse. The exercise lasted approximately six hours each day and provided a dynamic, real-world training environment that challenged participants to deploy specialized equipment and tactics to extricate trapped victims. The complexity of this exercise underscores MDERS’s and its partners’ commitment to enhance interjurisdictional coordination and elevate capabilities to better serve our communities and constituents.
This FSE was the penultimate stage of the POETEE cycle, (planning, organizing, equipping, training, exercising, and evaluating) aimed at improving structural collapse response for MCFRS and PGFD. The process began in 2021 with the creation of a workgroup comprised of subject matter experts (SMEs) from both departments, with support from MDERS. As progress was made, the initial deliberations for the FSE began in the spring of 2023, but fiscal and logistical hurdles arose. These impediments delayed the FSE to ensure a productive and successful exercise. With a new target date of spring 2025, the workgroup focused on the methodical process to create and execute the FSE.
Initially, the workgroup identified two potential locations to conduct the exercise: the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) Outdoor Range in Dickerson and the S.A.R.A site in Linthicum Heights. Ultimately, in consultation with departmental leadership, a consensus was reached to utilize the S.A.R.A facility. With the location finalized, MDERS staff began contacting concrete and construction companies across the state to accumulate the needed materials. Large concrete pipes and vaults, steel beams, and a Conex shipping container were acquired as components to configure the collapsed structure training environment. Over multiple days, the materials were offloaded and positioned to create the exercise site. The arrangement of the materials was meticulously situated to create five distinctive paths. Each path presented different challenges and obstacles for exercise participants to safely reach and remove pre-positioned victims.
On the days of the exercise, exercise participants and apparatuses were staged at a nearby light rail station parking lot. This location allowed for the efficient arrival of large vehicles and facilitated briefings without allowing participants to scout the exercise site beforehand. At the commencement of the exercise, the apparatuses responded to the emergency in a staggered progression to simulate a more realistic response. On the first day, PGPD was the initial responding department with mutual aid support from MCFRS, and the roles were reversed on the second day.
As the initial responding units arrived on the scene, the commanding officer established Incident Command (IC) and divided personnel into teams to start rescue operations at predetermined points of ingress. The arrival of mutual aid partners necessitated the creation of Unified Command (UC) and a rotation of active personnel working on the exercise site. The composition of the exercise site required arduous and prolonged work using various structural collapse techniques, such as shoring, breaching, cutting, breaking, and burning.
At the conclusion of each day, a hotwash was held to catalogue all input from participants, and an anonymous evaluation was shared with participants to complete. The overwhelming majority of participants thoroughly recognized the benefits of the exercise. All the input and technical evaluations will be included in an after-action report (AAR) with the participating agencies.
The success of this exercise marks a significant milestone in MDERS’s ongoing efforts to enhance operational capabilities and foster stronger interjurisdictional collaboration amongst our stakeholders. This exercise has already prompted internal changes for the departments and will serve as a catalyst for further interjurisdictional training with MCFRS and PGFD. The lessons learned will help shape the planning of future FSEs and other training exercises, ensuring that the participating agencies are better prepared for a myriad of different emergencies.
The success of this exercise would not have been possible without the support of Chief Jonathan Bender, Chief Doug Hinkle, Chief Jeremy Shaffner, Lt. John Lann, Lt. Logan McGrane, MFR John Gilkey, MFR Chris Hinkle, MFR Jerry Smith, Capt. Patrick Monahan, and Technician Joseph Baker. MDERS extends our gratitude to each individual for their time and expertise in creating this exercise. Additionally, MDERS would like to thank Concrete Pipe & Precast, Miller & Long Co., Atlantic Concrete, and Nelson Precast for their donations and S.A.R.A for allowing us to host this exercise at their facility.
The TTX, held at the Montgomery College Rockville campus, had 11 exercise participants. Each participant assumed their actual responsibilities and performed their role outlined in organizational plans and policies. Overall, the participants successfully navigated the scenario and coordinated an interdisciplinary response. The TTX also identified areas for improvement and for further discussion amongst organizations. All this information will be captured in an after-action report (AAR) for departmental dissemination and consumption.