Jeremy Burnham Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
May 14, 2025
Full Union-Bulletin Article
Colored tarps — red, yellow and green — were on the tarmac at the Walla Walla Regional Airport.
More than a dozen ambulances and fire engines from no fewer than four departments surrounded the scene as paramedics were carrying people off a bus and laying them on one of the colored tarps.
Nearby, a Life Flight helicopter stood ready to airlift a patient to Providence St. Mary Medical Center if needed.
If this were a real scene, the patients on the red tarp would be the most critically injured. They, and the slightly less serious patients on the yellow tarp, would be taken to the Emergency Department, while “green” patients would be on their way to a nearby urgent care center.
And, instead of a bus, the first responders would be surrounding a crashed plane.
However, this was a Federal Aviation Administration mandated training session. And the people being carried off the bus were actually Tri-Tech students in the paramedic program, playing injured air passengers.
“The FAA requires us to do this every three years, and as the providing (emergency) agency out there at the airport, we are in charge of putting this on,” Walla Walla Fire District No. 4 Chief John Golden said. “But it's a partnership with the Port of Walla Walla and other agencies.”
In addition to Fire District 4, participating agencies included the Walla Walla and College Place fire departments, Walla Walla County Fire District No. 8 and Walla Walla County Emergency Management.
Valley Transit was involved as well. Officers from the Walla Walla Police Department and the Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office were also present.
“So, it was a team effort, and overall, it was successful,” Golden said. “We had great participation from our first responders.”
Golden added that he thought the team, made up of different agencies, improved on their performance and communication from three years ago.
Walla Walla County Emergency Management Coordinator Patrick Purcell agreed.
“I will tell you, having seen this several times, this was the best that I have seen it,” Purcell said. “So, I was quite pleased … I absolutely think that the work that the first responders have done to prepare for it really showed. I was really happy to see how well the exercise went and to see how much responders got out of it.”