August 04, 2009
Joint Effort Helps Familiarize Fire
Units with Queens Campus Buildings
Practice makes perfect! That old adage rang true this past weekend
as the FDNY and St. John’s held an Emergency Exercise at the
University’s Queens Campus on August 1. The two-hour exercise had
been planned for months and detailed a simulated fire with injuries
and a chemical spill in St. Alberts Hall.
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"Exercising our emergency plans is an essential part of the
University’s Emergency Preparedness posture. And, having an
opportunity for planning and executing such a full scale exercise
with the FDNY is a huge benefit to us,” said Gerard McEnerney,
Assistant Vice President and Executive Director of University
Emergency Management at St. John’s. “It also affords St. John’s and
the NYC Fire Departments the opportunity to further improve our
response capabilities.”
Dozens of FDNY emergency vehicles from neighboring firehouses,
firefighters, EMS, OEM and HAZMAT personnel participated and played
the roles of injured students and professors to make the exercise
seem more life-like.
St. John’s Public Safety Officers, administrators and
staff were also on duty on Saturday and reacted to multiple injects
(situations and scenarios that could arise during a real fire) for
response in handling a full-scale emergency.
“The exercise further enhances our planning and ability to respond
to emergencies on campus. In addition, the meetings held prior to
the exercise and the exercise itself has enabled the Department of
Public Safety to build strong relationships with the FDNY first
responders,” said Tom Lawrence, Vice President of Public Safety at
St. John’s. “This is important because it allows for better
communication during a response to campus in the event of a real
emergency situation.”
All in all, the exercise was deemed a success and their were
several lessons learned that both the FDNY and St. John’s will take
back to the drawing board to revise their emergency action
plans.
This
event was in direct response to the University’s Emergency
Preparedness initiative in providing a safer St. John’s for its
students, faculty, administrators, staff and community.
For more information about the FDNY/St. John’s University Emergency
Exercise or Emergency Preparedness action plan contact Dominic
Scianna, Assistant Vice President for Media Relations by calling
(718) 990-6185 or e-mail inquiries to sciannad@stjohns.edu.