The Avon Lake fire and police departments hosted a mass casualty drill Aug. 7 at Avon Lake High School. The drill included neighboring safety services and emergency rooms. Students from the drama club and teachers volunteered as victims. The training scenario had an armed intruder in the high school that police had to search for and neutralize before they and paramedics could rescue victims from the building.
While taking pictures of the drill, they kept media at two observation posts to allow us access but keep us from getting in the way. On one hand, I wish they would have let me move around more for better pictures, but then again, I realize I wouldn’t have anywhere near this kind of access during an actual event.
Being when the drill began gave me a very strange feeling. I don’t know quite how to describe it. It was definitely eerie seeing something like this unfold, even if it was only a training session. After speaking to some of the other media and the first responders there, I found out I wasn’t alone feeling that way.