Incident Command System’s Year-in-Review

Over 140 Oakwood University and Oakwood Adventist Academy faculty and staff successfully completed one or more of the twelve (12) courses that were held as part of the Incident Command System (ICS) Simulated Command Center table-top exercises and the Active Shooter Survival training exercises during the 2008-2009 academic year.  The ICS training was the brainchild of Safety Officer David Moore and involved hands-on activities for attendees that simulated the actual workings of a command center during a critical incident.  After receiving a briefing on the various roles that had to play, an scenario unfolded that required participants to apply the basic principles of the ICS they had just acquired.

The purpose of the Active Shooter Survival course was to instill a survival instinct. The attendees were provided with a toolkit of options that could be implemented in the event of an active shooter scenario.

Finally, a live residential hall room burning was conducted during chapel on September 30, 2008. Simulated smoke fire drills in the residential facilities followed this exercise to further reinforce and heighten safety awareness. Public Safety partnered with Physical Plant to have the mock residential hall room built and with the Communications Department for the production of a video that captured the event for future training purposes.  The burning of the room demonstrated the speed in which a residential hall room can become totally engulfed in flames. The smoke fire drill, using theatrical smoke, brought realism to the drills. Several students experienced minor respiratory discomfort, further demonstrating the deadly effect of smoke inhalation.