Ohio County To Purchase Equipment To Train for Mass Shooting Emergency
Joselyn King Trending
WHEELING - Ohio County has received permission to use grant money it already received to purchase equipment local first responders can use in the event of a local mass shooting emergency.
Last year, the West Virginia Department of Homeland security Grant awarded Ohio County a grant for $14,954 to purchase a simulator to help train rural EMS squads
But since then, the state of West Virginia received federal CARES Act dollars to establish the "EMS WV: Answer the Call initiative." Five mobile classroom trailers containing training simulators were purchased to train first responders, with one being based locally at West Virginia Northern Community College.
That meant the simulator Ohio County planned to purchase was no longer necessary, and Ohio County Emergency Management Agency Director Lou Vargo believed the county "should be better stewards" of taxpayer dollars.
That is when he asked the state to permit Ohio County to use the grant money to award subgrants to local EMS and fire departments. The money would be used to purchase items that would be used if there is an active shooter situation in a school or elsewhere, Vargo explained. This would include ballistic vests and mass casualty equipment that most volunteer departments don't have.
The grants would go along with plans to establish a rescue task force in the county, he continued. The county will be purchasing additional items that would be taken to an active shooter site and distributed there to departments.
Meanwhile, the mobile classrooms for EMT training are a valuable asset to the community, Vargo continued.
"The whole idea is to provide training for rural EMS," he said. "We always have had people coming from Wetzel County and Hancock County to West Virginia Northern Community College.
"But now with the mobile classroom, they can put on classes at the New Martinsville Fire Department or the New Cumberland Fire Department instead of having them come here."
The mobile classroom is assigned to WVNCC, and looks like an ambulance, he said. It is set up with simulators and heart monitors for teaching purposes.
"It's a state-of-the-art thing, and we have had a demo on it," Vargo continued. "We're lucky to have one in the Northern Panhandle."
The simulated ambulances are outfitted with high-fidelity mannequins, allowing students to experience intense, realistic environments that are impossible to simulate in the traditional classroom.