October 26th, 2020 by WCBC Radio
On Wednesday September 23, 2020 the Mineral County Office of Emergency Services
officially placed its Mass Casualty Incident Response Trailer in service. In late 2019 Mineral County was
awarded $30,000 from the Homeland Security Grant Program that is administered through the West
Virginia Emergency Management Division to build a Mass Casualty Incident Trailer.
A Mass Casualty Incident is any incident that overwhelms the resources of a public safety agency. Mass
Casualty Incidents are usually bus crashes, multiple vehicle accidents, active shooter events, terrorist
attacks, etc.
According to Luke McKenzie the Director of the Office of Emergency Services “Thanks to the hard work
of numerous people on my team, especially our Office Manager Eileen Sindledecker who spent countless
hours unpacking, inventorying, organizing equipment and thanks to Paramedic Stephen “Craig” Cox of
New Creek Volunteer Fire Department this trailer is equipped with all of the equipment necessary to provide
care for large numbers of patients for just about any Mass Casualty Event.”
McKenzie continued on to say “This trailer will be staged at events that draw in large crowds around the
county and will always be available for use when needed at emergency events. This trailer is a great resource
for us to be able to pull from when needed. Although, we certainly hope we will never need to use this
trailer if we ever do it will be a big help to saving lives by ensuring the appropriate amount of equipment is
readily available to care for people. We are constantly working to live up to our motto of ‘Preparedness
Lives Here’ and this trailer is just one more example of your federal and local tax dollars being used to
serve the great people of Mineral County.”
The trailer is a 20-foot enclosed, climate-controlled car hauler. The inside of the unit has mounted shelves
and lighting with emergency equipment such as medical supplies, scene lighting, pop-up tents, and other
equipment necessary for a Mass Casualty Incident.
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