By Sarah Kuper
Nightly news reports are filled with stories of civilian shootings and domestic terrorism. While it seems a city like Mountain Brook would be safe from such violence, local EMTs want to be prepared if the unthinkable happens.
Six Mountain Brook Fire Department EMTs have been trained to handle crisis events such as mass shootings and hostage situations, graduating from SWAT school in November.
Deputy Fire Chief Chris Mullins said he has been eager for team members to go through tactical medicine training for many years because it is one more way to help citizens.
“As it was, if we got to a shooting situation, we had to wait behind the fire truck until the scene was clear. Meanwhile, people would bleed to death,” he said.
Without tactical medicine training, EMTs are not prepared to assist in an active shooter situation. This means victims may be injured inside a school or business with no access to medical care until a perpetrator is apprehended or the building is cleared.
Now that several Mountain Brook EMTs have tactical medicine training, they have new gear and new skills to administer medical aid to victims during an active shooter scenario.
Mullins said the medical treatment is no different, but the training taught EMTs how to treat a patient under extreme circumstances.
“We think of it as ‘care under fire.’ You never think about treating a patient while having to defend yourself but we learned that,” he said.
Mullins went through the training himself and said it was authentic SWAT team training.
“Sixty hours in five days of physically demanding training – it was terrible on an old man,” he said.
The EMTs spent a week at the Northeast Alabama Law Enforcement Academy running through scenarios they might encounter.
Mullins said they learned how to break through doors and windows and clear a building while staying mindful of victims’ medical conditions.
Typically EMTs and firefighters do not carry any kind of weapon. Mullins said that will not change.
“We don’t want people in the community worrying that a firefighter will show up to an emergency with a weapon,” he said.
But a bill pending in the Legislature would allow trained emergency responders to be armed for defensive purposes.
Mullins emphasizes that it is not the medical team’s job to seek and take down a perpetrator but rather to assist victims.
He said odds are Mountain Brook residents will never see an EMT in SWAT gear – at least he hopes they won’t.
“I doubt the public will ever see them. That would be a bad day if they did,” he said.
The SWAT-trained EMTs will continue to train several hours each month to keep their skills up to date.
Mullins said Homewood and Hoover also have tactically trained EMTs, and the departments would work together if the need ever arose.
