Local first responders complete threat training

The sounds of gunshots and screams for help echoed through the hall of Thompson Falls High School last week, but no one was in danger. Local law enforcement and first responders received training on how to respond when there is an active threat.

After two days of classroom work, lectures and going through scenarios, last Thursday the 29 police officers, fire department and volunteer ambulance staff enacted four scenarios in the Active Threat Integrated Response Course (ATIRC). The course is put on by the National Center for Biomedical Research & Training at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Instructors bring in equipment and utilize local ambulances, taking the first responders through the time an event takes place and the call comes in of an emergency to the point of making sure the area was secure and taking victims out to ambulances.

The program is grant funded by the Department of Homeland Security and updated every four years. Instructors travel all over the country, but this is the first time they have had a course in Montana. Thompson Falls Police Officer Jason Thornton helped bring the course to Sanders County. He said it's important for agencies like police officers, EMTs and fire departments to go through scenarios together. He has been through similar training in the past. "Inevitably, we will end up responding to a situation together anyway. This will help us work together," Thornton said Thursday.

The first responders went through four scenarios Thursday, including one in which an officer was shot. The instructors critiqued the group after each scenario. Residents volunteered to role play as victims and shooters. Sam Wenz of Thompson Falls is in the National Guard and is a detention officer at the Sanders County Jail. He played one of the shooting victims in scenarios on Thursday and the "bad guy" in another. Wenz said the training helps first responders deal with the stress of situations. "It will definitely help me in my job," he noted. "It will help cope with the stress factor." Instructors said they use some mannequins in scenarios, but they find that volunteer actors screaming for help make the scenarios more realistic.

"This is amazing," said Cara Eberly with the Thompson Falls Ambulance, who completed the training last week. "It's incredible to be able to work with law enforcement like this. You get to know each other's roles." The Thompson Falls Ambulance had seven volunteers complete the training.

Instructors praised the first responders for their improvement through the training, reminding them that smaller communities are doing more with less and that they were doing a good job with what they had.