PORTLAND, Maine — In order to make sure they're prepared to respond to large-scale emergencies, first responders met on the tarmac Saturday morning at Portland International Jetport for a simulated emergency training exercise.
Held every three years as a requirement by the Federal Aviation Administration, Assistant Airport Director Zachary Sundquist said the drill is used to help train first responders in real-time in the event of a plane crash.
"That's really the benefit of doing these drills, is going through that functional engagement of the program and finding out where the weak spots are," Sundquist said.
Sundquist said more than 100 first responders from several agencies participated in the drill, including state and federal personnel.
Portland Deputy Fire Chief John Cenate said his team has been training for the drill since March, and often comes in each time with certain goals in mind.
"Just because of this layout, water supply is very difficult, so we're testing to see our abilities to establish a water supply," Cenate said. "[The exercise] gives everybody a chance to work inside the airfield, which is very hard to do on a normal basis."
Roughly 75 volunteers were also used in the drill to simulate passengers of the crashed plane. Each volunteer is given a tag specifying what sort of injury the person is suffering from for responders to administer first aid and other medical help for.
"Today none of the victims are real, so that obviously helps, but even just having that mental picture of what it would look like to see seventy or eighty people injured out on the airfield is definitely not an easy thing," Cenate said.
Sundquist said the airport did not face any interruptions while conducting the drill.