MOUNTVILLE, Pa. — Police officers, firefighters and medical personnel from across Lancaster County found themselves at Field of Screams in Mountville Wednesday evening for a scary situation.
Mountville Fire Company No. 1, alongside West Hempfield Township Police and a number of other agencies, ran through an active shooter scenario.
“We’re trying our best to be prepared for anything,” said Mountville Fire Department Public Information Officer Peter Taraborelli.
The exercise aimed to give various departments the chance to work through a large-scale emergency, helping first responders learn to operate through the stress in a safe environment.
“This is not something that we want to happen. This is not something we hope happens,” Taraborelli said. “It’s training scenarios like this will allow us to say ‘I remember when I encountered this, or encountered that,’ and make us a little bit better if or when this is a real scenario.”
The training also serves as a test for how well agencies work and communicate with each other.
“We do get involved with multiple agencies, you know the ambulances and fire departments on a day-to-day basis,” West Hempfield Township Police Department Public Information Officer Corporal Ryan Mckernan said.
Corporal Mckernan says they want to prepare first responders to be able to handle such situations on their daily shifts.
“We need all hands on deck, if a call like this were to come out,” he said.
It’s a call they don’t want to get, but when they do Taraborelli says they’ll be ready.
“We are going to be better at life safety, property safety, life-saving if we do this kind of training,” Taraborelli said.
To make the training as realistic as possible, few people knew what would happen before the training operation started.
“As I understand it, it was an eight-person committee, maybe more planning this event,” Taraborelli said.