CHICO — You may have seen tents set up and people stumbling and yelling in pain while workers dressed in hazmat suits herded them into the tents Tuesday at Enloe Health.
Don’t worry, it was all for training purposes. Enloe conducted a “Code Orange” disaster exercise. The exercise was part of an effort to improve public safety and emergency preparedness while dealing with hazardous materials. The scenario was a chemical spill. Hospital operations continued throughout the disaster drill.
There were trainers, facilitators, Enloe employees, engineers, Butte County Public Health employees, Butte College nursing students, maintenance workers and fake patients in attendance. The exercise was followed by a debriefing.
A decontamination tent was set up near the ambulance bay at the hospital. Enloe staff installed it near the emergency room. Caregivers practiced putting on and taking off protective suits. Volunteers served as mock victims.
Mock victim Sharon Tong gets loaded onto a wheelchair Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024 during a Code Orange hazardous materials training at Enloe Health in Chico, California. (Jennie Blevins/Enterprise-Record)
Enloe regularly conducts disaster exercises once a year on a variety of scenarios to practice readiness.
“We do various exercises such as active shooters, flooding or fire disasters,” said Kim Freedle, registered nurse and emergency preparedness manager. “Anything could affect emergency preparedness, pesticides, COVID-19, etc.”
Trainer and Emergency Department Tech Cris Richmond has worked as a supervisor for 30 years and has been involved with disaster preparedness for 25 years. She has worked at at least 50 trainings.
“We’ve been through many disasters here,” Richmond said. “We have a lot of new employees. The protocol is learning how to don and doff the hazmat suits.”
Donning and doffing is the term for putting on and taking off personal protective equipment.
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“The exercise helps staff in reassuring the community that if anything like this happens we are prepared,” said Enloe Public Relations and Social Media Coordinator Sharon Martin. “Because we’ve seen many disasters in our area it’s never a bad thing to be prepared for everything.”
Enloe Emergency Technician Will Wolheim talked to responders wearing the hazmat suits during the exercise. He said there is an abundance of hazardous materials in Butte County.
“We live in an agricultural community here, and there are fertilizers and chemicals that are used,” he said. “One time I saw two kids covered in airplane fuel. They actually were fine.”
Jammie Owensby watched the training Tuesday. She works in Environmental Services at Saint Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff and came to watch and learn from the exercise. She was impressed.
“It was very educational and insightful,” Owensby said. “You never know what is going to happen.”
Owensby hasn’t been involved in a real Code Orange emergency situation but has participated in mock trials before. They are also held every year at Saint Elizabeth.
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