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The quad was swarming with police, nurses, sheriffs, and the bomb squad Wednesday as PCC’s emergency preparedness was tested for Safety Week.The various law enforcement representatives practicing their responses also informed students of criminal justice careers and on how to cope with emergencies.

LAPD, the Pasadena Police, and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department participated. The PCC Police practiced establishing its first Emergency Operations Center in response to simulated disasters on campus.

Led by Lt. Brad Young, the PCC officers and cadets dealt with two different explosion simulations. One practice involved an accident near the R-Building caused by a welding spark igniting a leak from a propane tank.

In the second scenario, a bomb detonated in Sexson Auditorium.

For such emergencies, the campus police plan to establish an Emergency Operations Center in a secure building, officials said.
Officers would be assigned various roles on the EOC team in order to coordinate all the outside officials that would respond to treat the injured, extinguish fires, investigate the incident, and evacuate the campus.

International student Chiara Baldini, 24, criminal justice major, was the incident commander for the bomb exercise. Her job was to coordinate the entire emergency response. She was barraged with questions from her fellow officers when Lt. Young reported news of the Sexson auditorium disintegrating into flames and smoke over the two-way radio.

“They decided to give [the Incident Commander job] to me to see how I would do,” she said

After the simulation, Lt. Young returned to debrief Baldini and the other officers. He cautioned the group that, “The more you get distracted with the little details, the harder it is to see the big picture.”

Other groups represented in the quad included the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Urban Search and Rescue Team, the Pasadena Health Care Link, and Kryptonite Bicycle Locks.

As part of being prepared for the unexpected, PCC administrators are interested in starting a search and rescue team at PCC.
“We’re here to try to stir up enthusiasm for the idea,” said Eric Fuller, Emergency Preparedness Administrator for JPL. Fuller says the team would be made up of staff, faculty, and students who would be required to complete 24 to 64 hours of training and go through regular practice drills to learn how to rescue people from buildings in the wake of a disaster.

The JPL team has 80 members. Ropes between two trees in the quad strung up their Tyrolian traverse suspension rescue system, but no demonstrations were preformed.

Fuller said that his team practices at JPL on a regular basis. “Every building they tear down at JPL, they give to us first for practice,” said Fuller.

The team hones its skills at demolishing walls and maneuvering men and equipment through tight spaces in these old buildings. They had planned to go to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina but NASA decided it couldn’t spare them in case of an emergency at JPL.

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