Home»BALTIMORE CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT»TRAINING»Baltimore Water Taxi Disaster Exercise-July 16, 2014

On July 16, 2014 Baltimore City hosted a full scale mock disaster drill in the waters off of Boston Street in Canton. This was the first time that an exercise of this magnitude was conducted despite the fact that in March of 2004 a Seaport Water Taxi capsized near Fort McHenry killing 5 of the 25 passengers on board. That accident was the result of a sudden storm with a high wind-burst that flipped the boat over.
The Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management conducted the drill and was headed by C. P. Hsia. The agencies involved in the exercise were the Baltimore City Fire Department, Baltimore Police Department, U. S. Coast Guard, U. S. Naval Reserve, Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police and the Baltimore Water Taxi.
The goal of the drill was to assess response capabilities and find any problems with coordination and communication between the various agencies during a major emergency on the water.
The scenario focused on a Baltimore Water Taxi at full capacity that experienced mechanical issues and eventually capsized. The drill involved about 50 people on board forced into the water. Flotation devices represented the victims in the water.
As the drill commenced the water taxi operator called over the radio “we’re taking on water, I think sinking or capsizing is imminent.” Crews “responded to the scene” from the staging area in the parking lot and began to launch Zodiac boats to begin to search for and retrieve the victims from the water. The “victims” were rescued or retrieved and brought to a central receiving area for accountability.
Many boats and apparatus responded from the various agencies involved along with Police helicopters for aerial observation and assistance. Divers were also on the scene practicing recovery operations.
The drill lasted about four hours and afterwards everyone attended a critique session. They discussed any problems that occurred, how they could improve emergency response plans, policies and procedures for future water rescue and recovery operations.
The key objectives to this exercise were operational coordination, mass search and rescue operations, operational communications and on scene security and protection.
All of the information gathered in the critique will be compiled in an after-action report and will be used to tweak the response protocols. More exercises on the water will be held in the future.