FALMOUTH – Falmouth’s Police and Fire Chiefs appeared before the town’s school committee last month to assure officials that the emergency crews are ready and able to respond in the event of a crisis at a school.
Police Chief Edward Dunne and Fire Chief Michael Small told committee members and a small contingent of residents that both departments have plans in place to deal with emergencies at public places in town, particularly in or around Falmouth’s six school buildings.
The National Fire Protection Association has released standards for active shooter and hostile event response which is helping to inform Falmouth Fire response efforts.
“Our communications are very good, our incident command system is very good,” Chief Small told the board,
“I think that Falmouth is as reasonably prepared for something like this right now as we could ever be.”
Small also said that his department is making investments in protective gear for firefighters including Kevlar vests.
For his part, Chief Dunne said that the police department continues to have a solid relationship with the schools and operates substations at several school facilities – and has plans to expand that partnership.
“I want you to know that Falmouth really is so far advanced compared to other districts, and the reason I can say that with a lot of certainty is I have a lot of chiefs ask to come and witness what we do,” he said.
Dunne continued, “There are a lot of districts out there that are not doing reunification drills yet. We’ve taken it to that next level that we’re already doing the reunification drills. So I just want to assure you and families that we really are advanced in keeping our students safe and getting them back to their parents.”
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