Crisis City hosts open house March 24, 2012
Crisis City, a multidiscipline training facility operated by the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, cordially invites the public to its second annual Disaster Preparedness Day and Open House Saturday, March 24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is no cost to attend and parking is free. “We anticipate over 1,000 attendees this year with many more exhibitors than last year,” said Angee Morgan, deputy director of KDEM. The open house will be the culmination of a three-day training at Crisis City event involving several haz-mat and search and rescue teams from Hays, Garden City, Manhattan, Salina, Wichita and the Kansas City metro area. As part of the training, unmanned aerial vehicles will provide aerial search and rescue and situational awareness for the teams working on the ground. During the open house, the public will have the opportunity to get an up-close look at emergency rescue techniques and equipment used by a variety of first responders. Current plans include: A demonstration by Salina Fire/Search and Rescue Task Force 8 · Search and rescue dog demonstrations by the Kansas Search and Rescue Dog Association, K-9 Search and Rescue of Kansas, Inc. and Sedgwick County Emergency Management K-9 Search Team · A demonstration on the Kansas Pipeline Association pipeline venue by Salina Fire Department/Hazmat responders and the Salina Airport Authority’s Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Vehicle #2 · A demonstration of an unmanned aerial vehicle Other demonstrations may be added as event planning continues. In a brief ceremony at 11 a.m., Invisible Fence of Central Kansas will present a canine oxygen mask kit to K9 Search and Rescue of Kansas, Inc.
The donated kit contains three oxygen masks, one each for small, medium and large dogs. The masks will also be used at Crisis City in the event of an injury to any dog engaged in search and rescue, guard dog, attack dog, drug or bomb sniffing or any other type of canine-related training. Kansas has three formal search and rescue dog K-9 organizations; two of them regularly train at Crisis City. K-9 Search and Rescue of Kansas, Inc. coordinated this donation for Crisis City. Invisible Fence previously donated K-9 mask kits to the Wichita Fire Department and Ford County Fire Department. Morgan said the open house is a fun and educational event for the whole family. “Whenever there is an emergency situation, the public is kept back for their own safety and to give emergency responders space to work,” said Morgan. “This open house gives the public the opportunity to see what these emergency responders do in those situations and how they do it.”
For more information about Crisis City and training opportunities, go online to kansastag.gov/KDEM.asp?PageID=370 Keep up with events at Crisis City on Facebook; search for Crisis City Kansas
Crisis City has training venues for many types of disasters and emergencies. Some of the training
areas consist of collapsed structures. Here the dogs are searching for simulated buried victims on
one of the two rubble piles. Other venues include an Urban Village, a Technical Rescue Tower, Rail emergencies with
a full size diesel engine and several different kinds of rail cars. Future venues will include a K-9
agility & directional course.
After Wilderness Search training , the teams may specialize in Trailing / Tracking , Building Search &
Collapsed Structure / Disaster. Crisis City is made to order for all that and more !
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In the event of a disaster requiring deployment of the Emergency Support Trailer housed at Crisis City,
the K-9 mask kit will deploy as part of the support package contained within the trailer.
Among other capabilities, the trailer has a robust emergency medical cache for human and K-9 responders.
A number of vendors and public service organizations will also be on hand to provide information
on emergency preparedness and showcase emergency response equipment and other products.
Crisis City, located eight miles southwest of Salina, provides state of the art training
facilities to all emergency response and support agencies, whether in one of its classrooms
or on any of the training venues. Crisis City is a multi-use, fully functional training complex
for local, state and federal responders, law enforcement officers, emergency management
professionals, public and private industry safety professionals, and military operations in
support of civil authorities. In addition to classroom space, training areas at Crisis City i
nclude railway accident response, an urban village, agriculture and farm safety, collapsed structure rescue,
a technical rescue tower, aircraft venue, and a pipeline venue. Other training venues are
in the planning stages.
