Massachusetts trying new response model in active shooter training
By Karen Anderson
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ANDOVER, Massachusetts (WCVB) — Vital first aid delayed, and fire and EMS personnel kept sometimes blocks away.
Responses to mass shootings have sometimes led to delayed help for victims because the unarmed personnel who could help were kept far away from the location until police were sure the threats were eliminated.
But under a new training model adopted statewide, EMTs and firefighters are allowed into scenes much more quickly.
5 Investigates got an inside look at the new system in action during a simulation held Thursday inside an empty building at Merrimack College in Andover. It was part of a week-long training for 50 police officers, fire officials, dispatchers and EMTs from around the region who in turn are tasked with going back to their departments and training their own members. Another 50 people will be trained next week in Holyoke.
John Cantarella with Texas-based ALERTT Training Center said that the vast majority of mass shootings are done by one person.
“They’re able to take out their most urgent patients to the ambulances to get them to their higher level of care,” Cantarella said.
“In just minutes?” 5 Investigates’ Karen Anderson asked.
“Yes, in minutes, as opposed to what could have taken hours previously, because in the past, fire and EMS weren’t allowed in the building until the entire building was cleared.”
Cantarella said that’s a lesson from the Pulse Nightclub Shooting in Orlando, where EMS and firefighters were kept blocks away.
Another lesson learned, Cantarella said: someone needs to immediately take command, and then everyone needs to communicate better. During the school shooting last year in Uvalde Texas, officers waited an hour and 14 minutes to enter the classroom, with no one in charge.
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