Blake Faith Larry Ross demonstrates a part of the Table-top Incident Command Disaster Simulation on Saturday morning at the American Legion.

WELCOME — Fire department officers and a police officer gathered in the Welcome Legion on Saturday and Sunday morning to go through a training program. This program was the Table-Top Incident Command Disaster Simulation.

Lance Ross, Owner of Emergency Preparedness Resource Group. liked the simulation idea from a class he took 25 years ago and decided to create his own Table-Top. Ross enjoyed the visuals and from that has taught hundreds of classes.

The first part of the class is Ross hearing the experiences from every individual in the room. Ross listens to every story and from every story can create different situations. The second part is to prepare them for what situations might come.

The Table-Top is a designed grid of areas that are constructed to represent cities and then with the use of matchbox cars can visualize situations. These situations range anywhere from two-car accidents, a bus accident, a helicopter accident, an active shooter and many more.

Inside of these situations is where it will help individuals become more prepared. Ross said there are other aspects to look at such as the age of people in the vehicles, how to assemble a task force to deal with the situation and how to stage vehicles to be ready for any situation.

The point behind staging these situations is to prepare people for the big one type of hazards. Also, the takeaway is that there are basic principles that can be used in every hazard and that there are some hazards you don’t have a plan for.

“I hope that they will learn that they deal and manage with insult,” Ross said. “It’s how you manage what’s in front of you to get back to normal day today.”

Ross said he wanted to tell readers and the community that he comes in with set objectives and set lessons, but it’s about hearing the stories from the individuals.

Also, networking is key in this class. It gives everyone a chance to connect with different people from different departments that they might see on a scene, but don’t have the time to connect on the line of duty. That this class allows them to get to know each other outside the line of duty.

Also that this simulation teaches a management process. That as long as the individuals continue to think through and work through that process that they will be ready for any big hazard.