Disaster Preparedness on a Multisensory Scale

“I believe the simulation went really well,” said Patrick Schooler, director of the EMS department for the Community College of Aurora, speaking of a uniquely pungent mass casualty training exercise held on the morning of November 11th at the former Lowry Air Force Base. “We had positive feedback from the professionals and the students and from a learning standpoint everyone came away with the idea that there was valuable information gained from the experience.”

The exercise, which involved several metro organizations including the Community College of Aurora, Aurora Police, University of Colorado Denver and responders from Buckley Air Force Base, recreated a disaster — specifically multiple bombings in the area — down to the smallest details, including not only gory sights (fake blood, glass shard impalement, severed limbs, courtesy of the campus’s theatrical department) but also “olfactory cues for medical training” which include simulated odors of sewage, gunpowder, vomit, and burnt flesh. “When you have all of your senses engaged, it becomes a more real experience,” said Schooler.

The drill, part of a training program for the Community College of Aurora’s First Responder Training Program, included about 400 participants, including acting students playing the roles of victims, protestors and news media.

“At the community college we have all these different resources that were involved. The film school was one, and the theater department was another,” said Clinton Andersen, Critical Incident Theater director for the college. “I think what topped it off was that the Army has actually been developing smells.”