Photo By Justice Vannatta | PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (Feb. 26, 2025) - Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate...... read more read more
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility and partners from across the City and County of Honolulu and the State of Hawai’i successfully completed a joint transportation accident exercise Feb. 26, 2025.
The exercise, held at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, tested the abilities of multiple organizations to respond to, and recover from, a simulated transportation accident that involved a shipment of hazardous material.
The Shipyard’s Emergency Response Organization maintains a robust program of training and exercises to regularly practice how to respond to a variety of different emergency situations. Although the Shipyard often trains internally, it is critical to work with local first responders and environmental specialists to make sure the entire team is ready to respond together.
Exercises like these are invaluable for increasing coordination, refining communication methods, and practicing response skills in collaboration with one another, said PHNSY & IMF Commander Capt. Ryan McCrillis.
“These exercises provide validation that everyone knows what to do in the unlikely event of an accident like this,” McCrillis said. “It was exciting to see the whole team, including our state and city partners, in action. Hats off to all of our Shipyard and local responders for their hard work to plan and execute this important training event.”
The exercise scenario simulated a multi-vehicle accident between a commercial delivery truck, civilian car and a tractor trailer from the Shipyard carrying hazardous material for disposal. Initial responders from Honolulu Police Department, Honolulu Fire Department and Honolulu Emergency Services Department had to make sure role-players’ injuries were addressed, secure the scene to protect the public, and extinguish a simulated fire. Responders from the Shipyard’s Transportation Emergency Response Team (TERT) and State of Hawaii Department of Health deployed in a second wave to monitor for material involved with the accident and developed plans to clean up the simulated accident site. At each phase of the simulated emergency, responders from multiple organizations had to coordinate and act to keep the role-players and exercise responders safe.
The exercise was a year in the making, with all organizations working together to make sure that the training scenario would realistically test the knowledge, skills, and abilities of every responder participating in the exercise.
"The Honolulu Fire Department thanks the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility for inviting the City and County of Honolulu’s emergency response agencies to participate in a well-coordinated, multi-agency drill,” said Honolulu Fire Department Battalion Chief Ricardo Yost. “This invaluable exercise allowed us to train together and handle a variety of incidents. It's always a win when city, state, and federal agencies collaborate to practice mitigation techniques for large-scale emergencies, ensuring we're well-prepared for real-life situations,”
Organizations that participated in the exercise included: the Honolulu Fire Department, Honolulu Police Department, Honolulu Emergency Services Department, Honolulu Department of Emergency Management, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and the Hawaii Department of Health’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response team and Indoor and Radiological Health Branch.
The Shipyard’s Outreach Manager, Grant Sato, said he was extremely grateful for the level of effort and commitment from all who supported planning and execution of the joint exercise.
“The primary objective of the Shipyard’s Outreach Program is to build and sustain robust relationships with our state and local partners,” said Sato. “Working together at exercise planning and joint training events has been exceptionally rewarding. We have been able to reinvigorate our partnerships and look forward to working closely together on future emergency preparedness efforts for the program.”
| Date Taken: | 03.20.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.20.2025 20:22 |
| Story ID: | 493406 |
| Location: | PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 105 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Shipyard Conducts Coordinated Transportation Accident Exercise with State and Local Authorities, by Lauren Matakas Arita, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
