'Tragedy' at Red Rock
Disaster drill tests emergency preparedness

A variety of emergency vehicles from multiple agencies surround the command center vehicle Tuesday during a mock disaster training exercise at Red Rock State Park. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Leslie Wood
Staff writer

Emergency response personnel use the hood of a vehicle as a planning table Tuesday morning during a joint agency disaster training drill at Red Rock State Park. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

CHURCHROCK —The Red Rock State Park auditorium transformed into a mock disaster scene Tuesday morning as emergency responders tuned their ability to respond to a mass-casualty incident.

The staged scenario involved a threat of an explosive at Red Rock State Park and ultimately the mock detonation of five explosives inside the occupied auditorium.

Law enforcement and first responders rushed to the scene to care for the wounded, who were played by students from Gallup High School.

“It was pretty chaotic,” Christy Luna, a senior from Gallup High School, said.

Luna and a group of friends posed as persons who were killed during the explosion; however, the acting wasn’t too difficult, Junior Franki Gomez said.

“We just laid there on our chairs, while they rushed around,” Gomez said.

The girls’ faces were painted to look as if they’d been bloodied and bruised from the blast.

After the simulation, they enjoyed snacks provided by the local chapter of the Red Cross.

“It was a lot of fun,” Luna said.

But for law enforcement, the simulation was a more serious matter.

Mark Diaz, the emergency manager for McKinley County, said the scenario was intended to test local first-responders’ abilities to respond to a catastrophe with many wounded and dead.

Local agencies worked with the 64th Civil Support Team to conduct the operation and practiced their transportation and response skills from about 7 a.m. to noon on Tuesday.

Sgt. Ted Collins, of the New Mexico State Police, said the simulation involved 16 students, four of which were pronounced dead at the scene and the remaining 12 were transported to local hospitals. Overflow patients were taken to Cibola County hospitals once local hospitals were filled to capacity.

“Everything is going smoothly,” Collins said of the mock disaster at about 11 a.m.

He said the civil support team also searched the auditorium for radiological and biological remnants following the mock blast. Officials also landed a helicopter near the scene to simulate a fly zone to transport the injured from the auditorium.

The FBI, sheriff’s department, Gallup police, state police, county and city fire departments, Gallup Indian Medical Center, Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital, Office of Emergency Management, Med-Star ambulance, Sandia National Laboratory, Red Cross and Cibola County hospitals participated in the simulation.