Volunteers gathered at the Flathead County Fairgrounds recently to stage training exercises for emergency response teams in anticipation of the upcoming fair.

But during one role-playing scenario, a make-believe situation became a real-life emergency.

Debbie Burke was participating in response exercises that included emergencies such as heat exhaustion, domestic disputes, lost children, accidents or injuries, among other things. She was role-playing an injured victim who’d fallen off the grandstand bleachers and in real life was swarmed by hornets and stung several times.

“What we thought was going to be a fake emergency turned into a real one,” Burke said. “You always have to expect the unexpected.”

Burke graduated from the Sheriff’s Citizens Academy to be a certified volunteer and joined other members of the Sheriff’s Posse as well as members of Flathead County Search and Rescue and North Valley Search and Rescue for the training exercises. Twenty-six people attended the training exercise.

Volunteers acted out scenarios and first responders practiced them.

“It gives you a real-world opportunity to the type of thing that they’re going to have to respond to,” Burke said. “There are various emergencies, like lost children. We had a role-playing session with a domestic dispute, where we had to intervene between an angry husband and wife.

“It’s just like a hands-on dress rehearsal before they have to do the real thing.”

The Kalispell Police Department has law-enforcement jurisdiction over the fairgrounds, but the Sheriff’s Posse and search-and-rescue volunteers are the designated first responders.

The Sheriff’s Posse is an auxiliary unit comprised entirely of volunteers who buy their own equipment and donate their time for training in order to become proper first responders, according to Burke. Burke said heat stroke, people falling off bleachers, and lost children are common emergencies at the fair.

If you’re attending the fair and require medical attention, look for a Sheriff’s Posse or search-and-rescue volunteer, or seek out a first aid booth, Burke said. First responders on fairgrounds will have radios with them to communicate with ambulance crews, if necessary.

Reporter Brittany Brevik may be reached at 758-4459 or by email at [email protected].