NOC nursing students, emergency crews participate in decontamination exercise

Firefighters carry a stretcher with an NOC nursing student through a decontamination shower during a mass chemical Decon exercise at the Phillips 66 campus.(File photo)

The good news is the decontamination exercise held Tuesday at the Phillips 66 campus was just an exercise and not the real thing.

The better news is that all those who participated will be more prepared if the day ever comes when the real thing really happens.

This exercise was training for  the emergency crews with Phillips 66’s new Mass Response Decon trailer, which the company received at the end of 2018.

NOC Nursing students from Tonkawa, Stillwater and Enid participated in the exercise.

Dozens of nursing students from the three Northern Oklahoma College campuses in Tonkawa, Stillwater and Enid participated in the exercise as well. Some played the role of victims. Others worked to triage patients after they went through the decontamination process, and a third group treated  the “patients” for the injuries they were assigned in the exercise.

The scenario was a mass casualty accident with injuries associated with an LPG leak and fire. The entire scene was set up in a parking lot north of the Phillips 66 security building, with two fire engines from the Ponca City Refinery and along with a ladder truck designed  to fight an LPG fire.

Ponca City Fire Department assisted with mutual aid and brought a ladder truck, ambulance and crew.

And Phillips 66 brought the Mass Response Decontamination trailer and other equipment.

Triage nurses take a casualty for evaluation.

The initial decontamination included spraying the “victims” with three strong fire hose showers. They then covered themselves with oversized plastic ponchos, removed  their contaminated clothing,and entered the decontamination trailer for a second shower and clean clothes.

Once dressed again, they were taken by nursing students to triage for their injuries — assigned  to them on tags attached to their clean clothing. Once assessed for injuries or medical problems, they were then sent to the treatment team — the last group of nursing students.

The groups that participated and observed included:

• Phillips 66 Ponca City Refinery’s Fire Brigade Team
• Phillips 66 Ponca City Refinery’s Hazardous Management (Hazmat) Team
• Phillips 66 Ponca City Refinery’s Medical/Rehab Team
• Phillips 66 Borger Refinery Fire Chief
• The Ponca City Fire Department
• Northern Oklahoma College Nursing Students
• Pioneer Technology Center Fire Training Program Students
• LEPC members
• Citizens Advisory Council
• Area municipal and volunteer Fire Departments, and
• Ponca City Refinery Leadership Team.

Casualties in the exercise, dressed in green, are evaluated in triage and treated by NOC nursing students.

Over the past 25 years, Phillips 66  has trained with the Ponca City Fire Department as well as other departments in the area. As part of that mutual aid training, Phillips takes two members from those area departments to the Industrial Fire School at Texas A&M each year.

In addition, each year the company does a day of petroleum liquid and gas firefighting at the OSU Fire Services Training Grounds free for about 30 firefighters each year. Both trainings are conducted by the Phillips Ponca City Refinery certified trainers.

A statement from the company explained that such training is extremely beneficial and necessary to Phillips 66 and the mutual aid partners who train side-by-side, so that when either needs the assistance of the other it is not the first time they have worked together. Through the training, they grow to know each other by name and how they operate individually and as a team.  This also allows them to learn and share knowledge and years of experience.