Local Impact
Some Clark County medics are equipped with body armor and ready to respond during a mass shooting if it happened locally.
German Twp. medics are prepared for a mass shooting like the one in San Bernardino, Calif., that happened on Wednesday, Fire Chief Tim Holman said.
Fourteen people were dead and 14 more injured as of Wednesday evening after the shooting at the Inland Regional Center.
“The statistics show that over 50 percent of the people shot probably bleed to death prior to EMS getting there,” Holman said. “And the reason for that is most of the time law enforcement will go in and they want to clear the scene before they allow EMS in.”
Holman wants to make sure that doesn’t happen locally.
Twelve German Twp. medics have received special training on entering an active shooting situation to administer medical attention while law enforcement works to clear a scene.
While police are going after a shooter, “we’re starting to treat the people that are bleeding and sometimes a simple tourniquet will save someone’s life,” Holman said.
In an active shooter situation, medics would be equipped with body armor, helmets and a pack on their legs with medical equipment to increase mobility.
German Twp. firefighters and medics aren’t armed, Holman said, but they are trained in the use of fire arms.
“If a law enforcement officer goes down, we can secure their gun,” he said. “We may even have to use their gun to get the individual out.”
“I think it’s coming,” Holman said about medics carrying guns. In Parma, Ohio, the fire department has armed their medics, he said.
The training program began over a year ago, he said, and is called Alpha Response. Since Holman developed the program, six other fire and EMS departments in the country have adopted a similar training method.
The program is voluntary and all medics know the dangers they could face, Holman said.
“We came into this profession to help people,” he said. “I can’t stand outside of a building knowing people are bleeding to death when I could put a simple tourniquet on them and save them.”
Holman will be talking about his training program with law enforcement in Bellefontaine on Dec. 8.
Other local first responders have prepared for an active shooter scenario as well. Departments in Clayton, Vandalia and Harrison Twp. have begun equipping crews with body armor to protect those responding to potentially dangerous scenes.
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