If you drove by Goffstown Public Works recently, you may have seen fire crews and other emergency personnel putting out a bus fire and treating victims.

However, there were no real injuries, as this was all part of a mass casualty incident drill, which involved the Goffstown, New Boston and Weare fire departments, as well as Saint Anselm College Rescue members.

A full-size school bus was donated for the exercise by Goffstown Truck Center, which also had several employees in attendance to view what they should expect in an emergency, whether EMS or fire, involving a bus.

The exercise began at 9 a.m. on Oct. 19 with prep and safety briefings prior to starting the event. Ten students from Saint Anselm were the accident victims in the bus and all were given a brief description of injuries that they received from the simulated accident involving the bus. They then acted the parts while firefighters and EMTs from the three departments and Saint Anselm College went about extricating, triaging, treating and transporting victims.

At 11 a.m. the second phase of the exercise started – the bus fire drill. Fire crews were set in place and another safety briefing was done. The bus was set on fire and crews took turns rotating through the drill.

The Goffstown Fire Department thanks all responders who participated in this training exercise as well as the Goffstown Truck Center and Duval’s Towing for allowing area responders to become more informed of what is involved in emergencies involving school buses.