EMS, Fire, Police Join for Major Minnesota Training Exercise

Nov. 01--RED WING -- In a hail of gunfire, law enforcement officers clear a path to those wounded in an attack at Minnesota State College Southeast in Red Wing on Saturday. Fortunately, these bullets are made of paint, and the victims are volunteers wearing orange bands on their arms.

Welcome to 3ECHO Active Assailant training, where 22 police, fire and EMS organizations from around southeastern Minnesota learn how to work together for improved response capabilities in the event of a hostile, violent situation.

"We're preparing how to deal with any event that is an act of hostility," said Mike Dobesh, assistant fire chief with Richfield Fire Department and one of the 3ECHO trainers.

For years, he said, the model for training in active shooter drills was for police simply to take down the "shooter." However, 3ECHO -- enter, evaluate, evacuate -- takes the job further, integrating fire and EMS personnel to help get victims clear of the action more quickly.

"The big focus is on life safety," said Red Wing Police Chief Roger Pohlman. "Getting EMS and fire in there to take care of the wounded is critical."

A good example, one trainer explained to a classroom of EMS, fire and police personnel, is the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., in 2012. The first police officer on the scene immediately called for EMS to come to the theater's front door to help evacuate the wounded. But a second officer, concerned the shooter was still active, told EMS to stage some distance from the theater building.

In the end, the lack of a coordinated effort likely cost lives, he said.

Dobesh said the training is meant to teach law enforcement to work with fire and EMS. While only the police should enter a "hot zone," he said, once police have made contact with an assailant, that hot zone can be downgraded to a "warm zone," and that is when a pathway can be made to start evacuating the wounded.

"This is about how to get responders to savable lives," he said.

The second benefit of working together more closely, he said, is law enforcement can communicate along the way, giving rescue personnel an idea of what they will be facing as they follow on the police's heels into a hostile situation.

The 3ECHO training began Friday night with classroom lectures. By Saturday morning, it turned into "crawl, walk, run," said Red Wing Police Capt. Tony Grosso. Members of the 11 police and 11 fire or EMS units walked through their exercises at increasingly fast speeds to learn how the tactics and communication eventually would work at full speed.

In addition to the 22 professional units, volunteers from around the region represented victims to be apprehended and suspects to be taken down. In addition to a smoke-filled bomb room complete with "body parts" and "bomb components," there were active shooter situations and rescue scenarios all intertwined to present a serious training environment.

One drill saw police moving down a hallway to neutralize a suspect in a room. Out in the hallway, "victims" cried out in pain. Moments after the scene was secure, fire and EMS personnel entered the hallway to start evacuating the wounded.

"Every minute, every second counts when you're bleeding out," Pohlman said. The training during the weekend is not an end, he said, but a beginning to make sure police, fire and EMS keep communicating in case the unthinkable happens. "You just can't take things for granted in your community. It's better to be safe than sorry."

It is training Grosso is glad to receive.

"I hope we never need it," he said.

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