The Daviess County Sheriff’s Office, Kentucky State Police, and other first response agencies conducted a training exercise Thursday at Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline to see how they are able to respond to an active scene.
President/CEO of Southern Star Shawn Patterson said the training reinforces the company’s passion for employee safety while working. The office had roughly 150 of its employees participating in the simulation.
Part of the training included an active shooter exercise, with DCSO, KSP, AMR Ambulance, and Daviess County Fire Department responding.
“Everything we do at Southern Star starts with safety. We built our culture around safety. So anything we can do to help our employees to partner with the public, like Sheriff Youngman and his team, become more safe, that’s what we’re about,” Patterson said.
Sheriff Brad Youngman said they typically have two options for organizations wishing to partake in the training. The first was a PowerPoint about the steps they agency takes during a response, while the other is the simulation which took place Thursday.
Youngman said the simulation was a complete success, and all parties involved were able to facilitate and educate even with the thunderstorms occurring outside.
“Everything went very well and we were able to come up with some things that we need to work on in the future. But I can say that they’re in great shape here as far as what their emergency plan is, and they’re planning to keep everyone safe,” he said.
Much like an actual situation, Youngman said that they could not bring their entire team to participate in the simulation, but they also phoned KSP, AMR and DCFD because in a live situation, all would be participating.
“It’s a team approach, and everybody worked well together,” Youngman said.
