The Edgartown Police Department and Fire Department will be holding joint training exercises at Edgartown School at a time between 8 am to 4 pm on Saturday, April 9. On Friday, Edgartown officials sent out an alert that asks people to “not be alarmed by the activity there.”
Edgartown Police Chief Bruce McNamee said this joint training usually happens once a year in the spring. The training consists of two main parts for his officers. One is preparation for an active shooter and the other is casualty training, in which officers learn how to assess injured people and how to get them out of the scene. According to McNamee, the officers and firefighters will be trained in their fundamentals and in “scenario” situations to simulate a real emergency.
“We still have new officers who are not used to the school yet,” McNamee said. He told The Times he prays the training will never have to be used in a real situation.
Edgartown Fire Chief Alex Shaeffer was not immediately available to comment on what his firefighters’ will be focusing on during the drill.
