Local, county and state emergency responders gathered May 19 at Monhegan School for a drill designed to prepare them for a disaster on the island.
Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency Director Tim Pellerin led the drill, known as a tabletop exercise.
All the action happened on an overhead projector inside the school. No people were injured and no buildings damaged.
The scenario for the drill – a product of the collective imagination of Pellerin and his staff – starts with a wedding party at The Island Inn.
A couple at the inn for the wedding gets into a fight in the dining room the evening of July 13. The domestic incident continues into the early morning hours, despite several warnings from the staff.
At 6:30 a.m. July 14, another guest and, shortly thereafter, the inn staff call 911 to report the escalating domestic situation.
Fifteen minutes later, the innkeeper hears two loud noises from the couple’s room and, upon investigating, smells smoke.
He calls 911 again, this time to report a fire, and starts to evacuate the inn’s 65 guests.
The Monhegan Fire Department responds immediately and, within minutes, the Boothbay Harbor and Bristol fire departments, the Boothbay Region Ambulance Service, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard have embarked on the boat trip to the island.
LifeFlight responds in order to transport inn guests suffering from burns and smoke inhalation, and the Maine Forest Service sends a helicopter to assist with water drops.
The Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency designed the complex and unusual scenario to involve as many agencies as possible and familiarize the participants with the Incident Command System.
Every agency involved had at least one, if not several, representatives present at the drill.
Pellerin described the Incident Command System as the standard management practice for emergencies large and small, “from a trash can fire to the end of the world.”
To set up the system, responders must determine who’s in charge and make an initial plan.
Monhegan Fire Chief Kole Lord would be the incident commander until help arrives, at which time a unified command would be formed. As for the plan, it doesn’t have to be complex, Pellerin said. In this case, the plan might be to rescue the inn guests and residents of the surrounding homes and fight the fire.
Lord and other Monhegan firefighters discuss the island’s unique challenges – tapping the town’s limited water supply, dismantling and moving dozens of propane tanks to avoid explosions, rolling out the single, 49-year-old fire truck and setting up a landing zone for the helicopters in the island’s athletics field.
Meanwhile, the scenario continues to play out. By the time mutual aid arrives more than an hour after the page, 10 guests are unaccounted for, the inn is engulfed in flames and more buildings have caught fire. Within the context of the drill, the emergency personnel at the scene re-examine the plan, update the command chart and determine what new actions they can take with mutual aid present.
The drill participants assigned Scott Lash of the Boothbay Region Ambulance Service to take command of emergency medical services, Maj. Ken Mason of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office to direct law enforcement efforts and Lord to continue to lead the fire response.
Lash and Mason spoke briefly about what they would do in the situation.
EMS responders would need to “locate a treatment area and locate all the resources we need” with the “ultimate goal to provide treatment and get [patients] off the island,” Lash said.
In this case, with a mix of burn and smoke inhalation victims in various conditions, EMS would need to determine what hospitals to send them to. LifeFlight could have six helicopters on the island within an hour, Lash said.
The first priority for law enforcement would be to determine who was on the island at the time of the fire and who might have left, Mason said.
“I’m sure the people who live on this island know who comes and goes,” Mason said. “We want to know – has anybody left?”
The scenario points to the possibility of a major crime – perhaps homicide if anyone dies – and Maine State Police and the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office investigate homicides, Mason said.
At 11:15 a.m., firefighters have the blaze under control. The inn has collapsed, three nearby buildings are damaged or destroyed and 10 people remain unaccounted for.
The fire marshal, according to the script, arrives 10 minutes later.
Sgt. Ken Grimes of the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office attended the drill and talked about his agency’s role.
The office would probably dispatch half to three-quarters of the investigators in the state to the island for several days in the event of a large-scale disaster like that in the drill scenario, Grimes said.
The Fire Marshal’s Office would work with LCSO to ensure 24/7 security at the crime scene and, in the event of deaths, would instruct emergency personnel to leave the victims’ bodies where they are.
“The placement of the victim is just as important as anything else,” Grimes said.
The fire under control, the drill participants turned to questions of logistics, such as how to write a press release and communicate with the media, how to arrange temporary lodging for inn guests and investigators, how to communicate with the families of inn guests and how to clean up and dispose of debris.
At the conclusion of the exercise, the participants discussed the drill, including the strengths and weaknesses they identified in their simulated response.
Lord, the Monhegan fire chief, said the drill peaked his awareness of “how desperate we are for a new fire truck” and a place to garage it.
A small, two-bay garage holds the 1963 fire truck and a public works pickup truck.
“I think this was great to have everyone out here and see how much help we need out here on Monhegan,” Lord said.
The island has hired Whitefield architect Lynn Talacko to design a new building, firefighter Matt Scheier said.
Pellerin said the county has a plan to equip the island with a new, $160,000 mini-pumper with a compressed foam system – the truck it believes would best serve the unique needs of Monhegan.
“We’re trying to find funding through a private source for you,” Pellerin said. “We’re working hard on your fire truck.”
Monhegan Deputy Emergency Management Director Jessica Stevens said she remains concerned about how to manage boat traffic in the harbor during a major incident.
Several participants talked about the spirit of cooperation in Lincoln County and how it extends to Monhegan Island, despite the challenges of geography.
Emergencies do crop up on the island from time to time, including a propane fire in a resident’s basement on Valentine’s Day 2011 and the September 2011 accidental drowning of a wedding guest.
During the former, firefighters across Lincoln County heard the radio traffic and were eager to help, Pellerin said. Bristol firefighters and a Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy responded to the fire, although Monhegan firefighters were able to put it out before they arrived.
Lincoln County Commissioner Sheridan Bond said he and his fellow commissioners “do not take Monhegan for granted.”
“If we can assist you in any way, we’ll try,” Bond said. “You’re always on our minds, even though you’re a few miles off the coast.”
Commissioner William Blodgett also attended the exercise.
Hardy Boat Cruises provided transportation at no cost to emergency personnel on its first voyage to Monhegan of the season. A representative of the company said the boat is available 24/7 to respond to an island emergency.
“You can call me in the middle of the night and a half-hour later we’ll be ready to go,” he said.
Pellerin described the exercise as “a great success.”
“I hope it makes a difference in the future and I believe it will,” he said.