You’ve probably seen a mass fatality event dramatized on TV or in a movie. But have you ever wondered what would happen if this were to happen in real life in Utah?
We have.
This is why we hold events like the recent Mass Fatality Conference hosted by our Office of Preparedness and Response and our Office of the Medical Examiner. We need a special class of responders who are trained to do the following:
- Retrieve and catalog human remains.
- Handle body identification.
- Provide critical information updates to survivors.
- Connect with family members of the deceased.
- Manage expectations and understanding of those family members.
- Reunite remains with families so they can process their grief and carry out traditions of mourning.
The proper and professional handling of the deceased is the last act of kindness offered to a family faced with the devastating blow of a mass fatality incident.
So we bring together the experts in the following disciplines: investigations, epidemiology, autopsy, morgue operations, and administration staff, as well as law enforcement officers who conduct death investigations under the direction of the OME, members from the DHHS Office of Preparedness and Response, emergency managers from various counties, funeral home directors from throughout the state of Utah, and the logistics team from the Weber County Sheriff’s Office.
We practiced set-up and take down of a portable morgue and discussed the key roles in responding. These are skills we hope we never have to use, but that’s what preparedness is all about. And it’s an expectation the public has of us, that we, as a system, will be ready to respond if the unthinkable happens.
A spirited demonstration highlighted Cait Clawson and her Belgian Malinois, Swayze, a Utah Task Force 1 (UT-TF1) K9 team (See photos). With a lot of barking and jumping, Swayze alerted on one of three covered barrels which held a small amount of human remains. When we asked Cait what she looks for when she chooses a puppy to become a search and rescue dog, she says “pick the one that would make the worst pet.”
This conference helped strengthen relationships between agencies and identified gaps in mass fatality preparation throughout the state.
It’s never fun to think about what happens in the case of a large-scale disaster, but it’s so important to make sure we meet the needs of the public with compassion and empathy . . . ALWAYS.