Special Response Team in Somerset holds yearly drill despite setbacks
SOMERSET, Ky. (WTVQ) – First responders in Pulaski County are keeping up their training despite a huge obstacle.
Weeks after the fire that heavily damaged its headquarters, the Somerset-Pulaski County Special Response Team still gathered Wednesday for a tough, annual training.
“All we got was a phone call at 8:30 this morning that we had a possible chemical exposure at the airport,” Team Chief Doug Baker said.
And just like that, Baker said his crew, and several local and state agencies, headed to Lake Cumberland Regional Airport and got to work.
“We try to determine what that exposure was,” Baker said. “It could be as innocent as someone mixed two cleaning chemicals together and got overwhelmed by it.”
But don’t worry. The call wasn’t real. Still, Baker said his team has to assume the worst and treat the situation as it would any other.
“It’s a good time to throw our new people in there and make them – stress them,” Baker said. “Make them know that they gotta look, especially for a secondary source, secondary device because when we’re playing this, we’re playing on the WMD side.”
That’s weapons of mass destruction. However, Zack Nicholson, one of the team’s newest members says he can handle the pressure.
“[I’m] a little bit nervous, but we’re prepared and we’re learning and that’s what matters,” Nicholson said.
Baker said there’s a new scenario each year, and they always switch up the location, but they had to skip it last year because of COVID.
This year’s was almost cancelled, too because of the fire. However, Baker’s team was determined to train.
“For two reasons: we love training with these guys, but more than anything we wanted to show the community that we’re still here,” Baker said.
It was a challenge, though. The fire destroyed a lot of the team’s communication equipment, making it harder for team members to tell each other what they were seeing. But still, Baker said he’s proud of his team for rising to the challenge.
“The people that I’ve seen step up – what I’ve seen out of them has helped me get through it,” Baker said.
Baker also said he can’t thank the community enough for its support.
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