Airport disaster drill at CVRA

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) -Emergency response teams from around the Chippewa Valley took part in a mock airport disaster drill.

The drill took place at the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport from around 5:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night. This drill is an effort to better prepare first responders in the event of an airplane mass casualty incident. At the time of the drill, people were asked not to call 9-1-1 to report or ask about an incident at the airport as it was a planned training.

The FAA requires airports across the country to conduct a disaster drill every three years. This year, the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport practiced a hazmat incident which would involve jet fuel.

Airport Director, Charity Zich, explains why this is a great learning opportunity for first responders.

“Many or most of these responders have never operated at the airport. So it’s an opportunity to get a little bit of familiarization with being at the airport and, you know, trying to look at how you would respond to a multi victim incident that would be on the larger scale like we might experience at the airport,” Zich said.

Zich says this drill has taken nearly eight months to plan.

Additional information regarding the drill that took place Wednesday is available on the CVRA website.

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