First Responders Conduct Active 'Assailant' Drill

EAST HAVEN, CT — Praying it won't ever be needed but training just in case it is, East Haven firefighters, police and first responders worked with students and educators performing a mock active shooter incident.

Last week, East Haven cops and firefighters did a joint training on Tactical Emergency Casualty Care. In the active "assailant" mock drill training, firefighters, paramedics, cops and SWAT "render care to injured victims even before the assailant is contained."

It was noted that the "training was born out of school safety and security meetings and identifying a need for this joint training and preparation."

The training was conducted by PJ Norwood and the Yale Center for EMS. The event took a "a great deal of coordination and time by both departments to complete this."

"We hope we never have to call upon this training but we are prepared if we need to."

On its Facebook page, the fire department wrote, "This is what’s been planned for quite a while now. Most thought that nothing was being done to address an event we all hope and pray never happens. Rest assured you East Haven first responders are trained and ready to deploy if it does."

And students played an important role in the training as well.

Firefighters took to Facebook to commend the schools and student involvement.

"Thanks for everyone’s help especially the East Haven High School students who worked as victims for us during this realistic training," they wrote. "Great work being done by the school safety committee which includes school administrators ..."