The MSU Department of Police and Public Safety spent its first week of vacation slightly different from the students and faculty who went home to relax.
DPPS officers and staff members began a two-part program that simulated a biological disaster at Erickson Hall, and the unannounced training was followed by fire drills across campus the rest of the week.
All of this will help the DPPS and the MSU community prepare for a major emergency on campus, MSU police Lt. Penny Fischer said.
"This was an opportunity for us to train our police officers on how to respond to emergency incidents and properly set up security around the area and to control access to the area," Fischer said, adding there will be another similar but larger drill later in the summer.
At 1:34 p.m. last Monday, DPPS units responded to a mock dispatch that announced there was a "suspected biological agent at Erickson Hall on the first floor."
Building alarms sounded and within four minutes, all 200 people inside were evacuated, according to Dan Caulkett, emergency management assistant coordinator. The Erickson building staff and guests were led outside by volunteer employees wearing bright yellow construction helmets. Caulkett is in charge of training the volunteers, MSU employees who work in residence halls and service buildings.
A team of crime scene investigators, part of the department's rapid assessment team, were outside Erickson Hall setting up an emergency tent. The tent, which includes pumps, filters and showers, will give emergency response units an area to safely and privately clean off any victims of a biological or chemical attack, according to Lt. Sue Busnardo.
Busnardo heads up the rapid assessment team, which also includes personnel from the East Lansing Fire Department and MSU employees from the Office of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Safety.
"Normally, once the first responders determine what the situation is and they determine they may need extra (hazardous material) support, then they would contact our team to respond," Busnardo said.
"(The rapid assessment team) would go into the scene, and determine what may be in the air or what the situation may be: If it's chemical or biological and determine what the problem is, how dangerous it is and how to proceed," she said.
Busnardo oversaw the construction of the $25,000 tent and its components, which she said was purchased in part because of the negative reaction to an incident three years ago at Linton Hall, when 15 employees were decontaminated in the hall with limited privacy.
"The university has made a number of efforts to improve on protocol for that type of situation," Busnardo said.
