Dozens of first responders respond to plane crash training at Sonoma County airport

The first responders to Wednesday morning’s commercial plane crash at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport arrived at 10 a.m. to find dozens of badly injured people sprawled in the grass.

An airport crash vehicle carried flame retardant foam to douse potential flames that might spark from aviation fuel. A Rincon Valley fire engine crew established an incident command and firefighters assessed and triaged the injured by putting ribbons on their wrists: red for life-threatening injuries, yellow for moderate and green for little to no injuries.

More fire trucks and ambulances from Rincon Valley, Windsor, Santa Rosa and Forestville fire departments and Cal Fire swarmed the tarmac at the scene of the mock mass trauma around 10:15 a.m.

Forty-five minutes later, the simulated aircraft crash drill required once every three years by the Federal Aviation Administration for the Rincon Valley and Windsor Fire Protection Districts and the airport was over.

“This a somber reminder of how tragic these event can be,” said Rincon Valley and Windsor Fire spokeswoman Cyndi Foreman. “We train for situations where the number of victims overwhelms the number of responders. It’s pretty ominous.

“It’s really important for us to figure out what worked and what we can improve on.”

Those answers and insights weren’t available Wednesday, but the training was invaluable.

For the 40-some firefighters and other first responders in full gear, the mass-casualty exercise was about being prepared in case a commercial aircraft crashes in Sonoma County.

And for the approximately three dozen volunteers from Windsor High School, Santa Rosa Junior College and the Red Cross, many of whom wore bloody makeup simulating bone fractures and other injuries - some even had the role of fatalities - it was a reminder of how traumatic a crash could be.

Windsor High senior Guadalupe Macias, 18, sat on the grass and was told to act confused with signs of shock.

Santa Rosa Junior College EMS student Dan Giddings, 30, had a shard of glass sticking out of heavy makeup on his forehead and was told to die by the end of the scenario.

“It’s really stressful at first,” Foreman said of the firefighters who arrived on the scene and quickly determined the severity of multiple victims’ injuries. An improper medical assessment could result in death in a real scenario.

A chunk on airplane debris pinned down one victim. Moments later it was removed by a firefighter, but the patient had to wait a few minutes before being strapped to a backboard and carried to the triage area. The volunteers tagged red were the first put in ambulances. Firefighters carried away one the scene’s three fatalities in a carry-all, a sheet of vinyl fabric with handles.

Windsor firefighter Taylor Combs, who was unstrapping teen from a backboard, called the exercise “very valuable.”

“Any sort of training like this will help when the situation is real,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Nick Rahaim at 707-521-5203 or nick.rahaim@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nrahaim.