Tetra Tech Helps Prepare Philadelphia for Mass Casualty Event with Training Exercise

On July 29, 2015, Tetra Tech coordinated a full-scale mass casualty and mass decontamination event exercise for the City of Philadelphia. The exercise simulated a chemical attack in a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) subway station.

This training exercise was part of the City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management’s mass decontamination training exercise series. Tetra Tech was selected to help validate the City’s capability to manage complex incidents including mass casualty incident management, on-scene decontamination, patient tracking, and rapid integration of mutual aid resources.

The full scale exercise involved more than 175 first responders from the Philadelphia police, fire, and emergency management services and the Office of Emergency Management; SEPTA Police; and other state and federal partners. More than 80 volunteers acted as victims of the mock chemical attack. Responders triaged, decontaminated, and treated the volunteers as real patients, putting the City’s plans, policies, and procedures into action.

Watch NBC 10’s coverage of the event here.