Guymon Fire Department Receives $50,000 Trailer

By JAMES PIERCE
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Guymon Fire Department and First Responders have a new tool for handling emergencies in the Panhandle.  The $50,000 Mass Casualty Trailer is a 16 ft. long trailer loaded with medical supplies that can sustain up to 50 people with emergency medical care for 72 hours.
The trailer was funded through Homeland Security and is here to provide this service throughout Region One, which includes everything North of I40 and West of I35.  Region One is the largest regional division in Oklahoma by Homeland Security but it is also the smallest in terms of population.  There are 20 personnel for Region One, of which, four are from Guymon and two from Hooker.
The trailer is supplied with everything a normal Ambulance includes except that there is enough to support a large number of people.  
Homeland Security also provided smaller trailers called Bantams to other communities in Oklahoma.  The Bantam is half the size of Guymon's new mass casualty trailer and can provide medical care for 25 people.  
The two largest trailers provided to Oklahoma for Muskogee and Norman can support more than 100 people with medical attention.  In addition to medical supplies, the largest trailers also include an oxygen making system, generator and satellite communications.
Assistant Fire Chief Grant Wadley said, "In other places like Amarillo, they've put together their own mass casualty or mass triage trailers, but we are a smaller community.  If it wasn't for Homeland Security's help with funding, we would not have been able to do this."
The trailer is a part of the Regional Emergency Medical Services System which also includes the Ambulance Strike Team and the Oklahoma Disaster Medical Response Team.  Wadley said the funding for the trailer and others like it has been available for awhile since September 11, 2001, and the creation of Homeland Security but, "about three years ago, a group of us got active to create a plan of action preparing for fire and medical rescue in order to fulfill the guidelines for funding."  Wadley is also the team leader for the Region One Ambulance Strike Team.  
According to Wadley, if the trailer is ever needed and the State or Federal Government declares a disaster, Homeland Security will provide the funding to resupply it but if it is a local emergency, local providers will be responsible for the resupply.
Wadley said some people have raised the question of the Panhandle's need for such a trailer but he said, "When we had that bad ice storm, there were some areas down for more than 72 hours.  It can happen here.  I had a transfer through Greensburg, Kansas about six days after the disaster there.  It was eerie and unbelievable to see the destruction a tornado can cause.  So, this is something the Panhandle needs and I'm glad we have it."