What was that explosion? City of Shoreline emergency training exercise

Shoreline fire fighters take a wounded student away from the school bus in a training drill.
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

By Diane Hettrick

The yellow school bus stood alone at the end of the high school parking lot.

Suddenly, there was a popping noise and the bus filled up with smoke. The door opened and a few students stumbled out, some collapsing to the ground. They were bleeding from multiple wounds.

From the direction of the school, half a dozen adults ran toward the bus and began helping the students to move away.

Smoke was pouring out the open door and the screams of those trapped inside filled the air. The bus driver, bleeding and bruised, stumbled down the steps and stood outside the bus, looking dazed.

An adult who was attending a meeting at the school tends to the dazed and wounded students.  She has had CERT training but her first aid supplies were in the back of her car.  The bus driver stands at left, staring at his bleeding hands.  This was part of a City of Shoreline training drill.  Photo by Steven H. Robinson.

At the side of the parking lot, one of the students being tended to by the adults began screaming and thrashing around, "I'm NOT all right! What do you MEAN I'm all right! I'm NOT ALL RIGHT!," and then moaning "My friends are on the bus, get them out."

The sound of a distant siren floated in the air. Students on the bus were screaming and yelling "Get me out of here!" and "Help my friend - he's trapped!" Students already out of the bus tried to run back to help their friends, but the adults held them back.

A huge ladder truck from Shoreline Fire arrived and pulled up at the other end of the parking lot, far away from the bus. The teenaged boy lying on the ground by the bus wasn't moving. A piece of metal protruded from his chest.

Fire fighters have been told that there was an explosion on the bus but at this point they do not know the cause of the explosion.  Photo by Steven H. Robinson.

More fire vehicles and police cars arrived, packed into the end of the parking lot, but staying well back. Finally a couple of fire fighters started unfolding hose lines from the truck.

Did this really happen? Yes, but it was a training exercise, staged by the City of Shoreline Office of Emergency Services at Shoreline Christian High School at 14700 25th Ave NE on the 6th of October. Department head Gail Harris said that the City receives money from the State every year to fund emergency preparedness and they put aside funds to stage training exercises like this one about every four to five years.

"We do a training exercise every year, including all the community partners like the school district, State Public Health Lab, and Fircrest Hospital. Usually it is a "table-top" scenario where we all meet to discuss an emergency scenario like an earthquake. Every four or five years we do a full scale exercise. This year, the fire department wanted to do a scenario with multiple victims."

Police cars, medic vans, fire trucks. No sirens, but lights flashing, The street into the parking lot is blocked and I'm told that 25th is lined with emergency vehicles. Nearby Shorecrest High School and Briarcrest Elementary School are on lockdown. The State Public Health Lab and Fircrest Hospital on 15th NE are on lockdown.

A police officer interviews the bus driver to find out what happened on the bus in this training exercise.
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

Firefighters begin to move toward the bus. One said to the others "we don't think there is another explosive device on the bus, move in." A police officer was talking to the bus driver. The driver said "there was someone new on the bus, but he's gone now." Someone is shouting to the students. "If you can move, get off the bus."

 Badly wounded students are taken to aid cars on rolling stretchers in this fire department training drill.
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

The medic vans move up. Stretchers are set up and rolled toward the bus. An evaluation station is set up to one side. Wounds are tended and bandaged. Vans leave with the most seriously wounded. The smoke starts to clear from the bus. The screaming stops.

The "victims" are 16 members of the Shoreline Schools firefighter class, a regular vocational class that trains high school students from Shorewood and Shorecrest in the skills needed to be a fire fighter. Students may go into any of the emergency or medical worker professions as a result of their class experience. Today they are learning what it is like on the other side of the equation, as victims needing to be rescued.

The medic vans drive down the block and let the "victims" walk back to the school, to get cleaned up and return their wounds and props.

The training exercise is complete for Shoreline Fire. Now they all gather in a large circle next to the bus, for the "hotwash" - the on the spot debriefing. "Who was first on the scene?" "Ladder truck 61." "What did you know?" "There had been an accident with multiple victims." Each unit reported in the order of their arrival, saying what they knew from Dispatch, what they found when they arrived, and what they did when they got to the scene. Since the scenario was an unknown perpetrator who set off a bomb on a school bus, it is startling to realize what they didn't know as they arrived on scene.

"It's always about communications," said Shoreline Fire spokesperson Melanie Granfors. In this scenario Dispatch is getting multiple calls, from neighbors who heard the explosion, from the parents at a meeting at the school, from school officials, possibly from some of the kids on the bus. None of them really know what has happened, just that there was an explosion on the bus. Each unit that arrives on scene has more information.

"The City provides an emergency radio channel," says Gail Harris, "so all the responders can talk directly to each other without delay."

The City also opened its Emergency Operations Center, with Harris and a designated leadership team called in to monitor and control the situation remotely.

All the responders and city staff met later for a complete debriefing. They talked about what went well, what problems they had, what they needed. The Exercise Evaluator, who was all around the site, observing and making notes, shared his findings. Then they began working on solutions.

"Every situation is a little different," said Granfors. "Running a training scenario like this one helps us find the unexpected problems." 

Harris commented, "On 9-11 the police helicopter circling the tower knew that the building was going to collapse. He communicated that message, but it didn't get to the fire crews, who ran into the building. We're looking for those communication breakdowns so we can repair them before we're in an emergency situation."

Next: where is the guy with the bomb and what is happening inside the school?