CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) — Students at Coastal Carolina University had the chance Thursday to learn from emergency response and management crews.
Officials from Conway Fire Rescue to the South Carolina Highway Patrol were on campus to help students and staff familiarize themselves with CCU’s newest emergency response procedures.
The event included an emergency evacuation challenge where students took a sheet to each emergency operations booth, got a stamp and familiarized themselves with the updated emergency response procedures on campus.
“We’ve assigned each emergency procedure to our local first responders who have joined us here on campus today,” said Carissa Medeiros, associate vice president of resilience.
Between classes, students and staff could visit all 12 first responder stations.
“Pull, aim, squeeze and sweep,” said Austin Stitch, a firefighter and EMT. “We’re going to pull the pin, squeeze the handle and suppress the fire.”
“Walking around campus, we were doing the ‘stop the bleed’ and some of the shooting drills as well,” said Samantha Roberts, a CCU graduate student. “It’s important to be prepared, because you never when something like that’s going to happen.”
Each first responder booth was assigned a question about what to do in a certain emergency on campus. If the Chanticleer answered the question correctly, they got a stamp on their card.
“They asked what number we should call and my initial instinct was 911, but I didn’t know that we had an emergency number on the back of our SINO cards,” said Geya DiGigennaro, a CCU senior.
One student also said she only originally participated for class, but said she left feeling safer and more confident living away from home.
