St. Clair County Fire & EMA donates emergency boxes to St. Clair schools
Published 8:00 am Thursday, May 8, 2014
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Springville Fire Chief Richard Harvey was at Springville Elementary School last Friday to announce the St. Clair County Fire & EMS Association’s donation of emergency boxes to all St. Clair county schools, an investment that cost around $6,000.
The idea of disaster response kits originated from St. Clair County School Nurse Coordinator Sharon Owens. Owens attended a training session on lessons learned from the tornado that struck Enterprise High School in March of 2007. During this tornado, nurses had to use book covers to set broken limbs on children. “That really made us think,” said Owens.
She realized that St. Clair had a need for these kits because she didn’t want her nurses to be in a similar situation of improvising for survival. Owens discussed the need with Harvey, who developed and implemented the plan. According to the St. Clair County Fire & EMS Association, these emergency kits will provide a cache of basic first aid supplies at each school. All 16 durable boxes include: a reflective red cross for locating; multi trauma dressings; conforming gauze; triangular bandages; trauma sheers/scissors; ace bandages; emergency blankets; splints; sterile water; light sticks; gloves; cloth tape; cold packs; and large band aids. In the event of a large-scale disaster, staff or visitors can immediately begin taking care of injured students while responders are en-route, thanks to these boxes. “Anything we can do to protect our kids is of vital importance,” said Harvey. “And these can be used for anything not just tornados.”
Nurses at St. Clair schools have been made aware of the content of the boxes and have been trained to respond in a disaster. The St. Clair County Fire & EMS Association even went out and worked different scenarios and triage process with these nurses.
Those administering the boxes and school officials agree that the training will most likely be an annual event. Harvey said that the school nurse and principal for each school would decide placement for the box. “So it will be out of the way but easily accessible,” said Harvey.
All parties involved are excited to have these new additions at each school but hope that the need for them never arises. The County Fire Association provided the funding to purchase the boxes and supplies along with items donated by the St. Clair County EMA. Springville FD worked on putting the boxes together and will distribute them as well. Batemon provided signage for the outside of the boxes. The emergency boxes will be donated to the following schools: Ashville Elementary; Ashville High; Margaret Elementary; Odenville Elementary; Odenville Intermediate; Moody Elementary; Moody Middle; Moody Junior High; Moody High; Ragland High; Springville Elementary; Springville Middle; Springville High; Steel Jr. High; St. Clair County High; and Ruben Yancy Alternative School. Harvey said that they are also looking toward providing the boxes for Pell City schools but are currently looking for more funding to do so.
