Published Thursday, December 19, 2002
big promise in real life
in safety training
Herald Staff Writer
Envision a city with streets, cars and buildings.
Now envision that city 87 times smaller than the cities and towns we live in and you've got a mental image of "Karlstown."
Karlstown is a miniature city, designed by Carl Jaklic of Hermitage, to train local public safety workers on how to handle emergencies.
Karlstown was unveiled Wednesday during a meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee.
Public safety workers will set up mini-disasters and use the model to determine where police, fire and emergency medical personnel would go and to establish a chain of command.
During a training class in June, a similar model city was brought to Mercer County. From that, Jaklic got the idea to build a city for the county. Jaklic said he approached James R. Thompson, director of public safety, about building a city.
"He was a little ... I think at first, reluctant," Jaklic said of Thompson's initial reaction.
Thompson said he knew it was going to be a big project. "I said, 'Carl do you really want to get into this?' " Thompson said.
Jaklic, a Mercer County 911 quality assurance and training supervisor, said he made a model to prove to Thompson that he could make the buildings. Jaklic used a computer program to draw the buildings. Then he printed them out on heavy paper, reinforced them with foam and glued roofs on them.
Thompson called the first building Jaklic created amazing.
It took different amounts of time to build each of the 100 buildings. Jaklic said some buildings took only three to four hours, while a building like Wal-Mart took a week.
Everything is to the scale of a model railroad, Jaklic said. Basically it would take the length of 87 model cars to equal the length of one real one, he added.
Most of the buildings in Karlstown are "generic" and not modeled after specific Mercer County buildings. Besides the 911 center and Wal-Mart, the only other local building constructed was Mertz Towers in Sharpsville because Jaklic said he wanted to do a high-rise.
Jaklic said he will build specific buildings for local fire and police departments if they're essential to training. He said, for instance, if a police department is staging a raid and needs a model of a specific home to prepare police for what to expect, he would build that home.
The model city also includes imitations of tornado-damaged homes, a chemical spill and even a vapor cloud. Jaklic said he used stretched polyfill to create the look of the cloud.
"I haven't quite worked out how to do flames yet," he said.
Jaklic said he is just finishing the model city, an undertaking he described as "monumental. I didn't really realize what I was getting into I don't think."
Greenville Fire Chief Steven Thompson described the accuracy of the buildings as "amazing." He said Karlstown can be torn down and taken to cities around the county. All a public safety department needs to do is request use of the model.
Jim Thompson said a training program needs to be developed using various scenarios. In the beginning, the training will be trial and error, with the trainees offering suggestions on how to improve the program, he said.
Fire Chief Thompson said Wednesday they simulated a chemical spill and used the model to help resolve the situation. "It really helps getting the reality of an incident," he said.
In addition to Karlstown, the county also unveiled two new mass casualty supply trailers Wednesday, Fire Chief Thompson said. He said the county had five hazardous materials trailers but got two new trailers, so two old ones were converted for mass casualty supply use.
The trailers hold supplies to treat 35 patients and will be kept at the Jackson Center fire station and UPMC Horizon, Greenville, Fire Chief Thompson said.
After staging several mass casualty training exercises, emergency management personnel realized ambulances just don't carry enough supplies to deal with a large number of victims, Public Safety Director Thompson said.
There is more than $7,000 worth of equipment in each of the two trailers, he said. Funding for the project came from the UPMC Horizon Foundation, the Shenango Valley Foundation, Sharon Regional Health System, United Community Hospital in Pine Township, and a grant through the office of state Sen. Robert D. "Bob" Robbins, Salem Township, R-50th District. Money and equipment donations also came from local fire departments and Rural Metro Ambulance.
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Kristen Garrett at:
kgarrett@sharonherald.com