When Firefighters arrive on-scene of an incident that has multiple patients, or more patients than emergency medical service resources, they will declare a Mass Causality Incident (MCI). Once an MCI is declared, the appropriate level of resources are deployed, and a definite and well coordinated flow of events occur: triage, treatment and transport. Triage is the initial process of determining the priority of patients based on the severity of their condition.
Firefighters honed their MCI skills today during a multi-company drill. The scenario: a car explosion rips though several vehicles, killing four people, injuring seven others, and trapping three patients in vehicles requiring specialized stabilization and extrication. Crews practiced all three phases (triage,treatment and transport) of an MCI in this exercise.
