GULF SHORES, Ala. — When firefighters report for duty, they can expect just about anything.

And on a recent Friday just about anything happened. Well, sort of.

A training event was planned that would involve several agencies, but the tip of the spear, so to speak, would be the Gulf Shores Fire Department. Even if the guys on duty at the time weren’t aware of it.

“Our guys didn’t know about that,” Fire Chief Hartly Brokenshaw said. “When they showed up that morning they knew something was going on, but they didn’t have a clue what it was. We didn’t even know what shift this was going to hit in.”

Brokenshaw likes it that way. He wanted his crews to be thrust into the fire of a situation in training just like it was the real thing.

“I’m one who believes in that,” he said. “Make your mistakes when you’re out there training so that when you’re doing it for real, you’re doing it right. We learned an awful lot.”

In conjunction with the Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency and several other agencies, Gulf Shores participated in a mock plane crash scenario at Jack Edwards Airport. It was a full-scale event.

“It was dealing with any disaster you could have,” Brokenshaw said. “There was a lot of help from the outside. I just stood back and let them do it.”

The first step was a 911 call.

“We made the 911 calls and it was supposed to overtax the 911 center and it did, but it did what it was supposed to,” Brokenshaw said. “That was real interesting to be there to see how all of that worked and it did.”

Also on hand were several officials from different airports in the region to gauge how the crews did in the drill.

“We had evaluators come in,” Airport General Manager Jerri Thompson said. “Pensacola NAS fire chief was here. He’s over Pensacola NAS and Whiting Field and he thought the guys’ response was incredible and was very impressed. The Mobile Airport Authority, they were here, they were evaluating. I thought it went very well.”

“Victims” were volunteers from the Wisconsin Snowbird Club.

“They were pretty awesome,” Thompson said. “They really tested our system for sure. We had a few award winners that day I do believe.”

The drill didn’t end on the airfield, however. Patients were transported to South Baldwin Regional Medical Center where the staff there was participating as well.

“The hospital accepted all of those victims,” Gulf Shores Public Works Director Mark Acreman said. “They were transported to the hospital and the emergency room had to respond and the nurses there were evaluated on how well they responded. I was extremely impressed with the scope of the operation.”

Councilman Joe Garris wanted to know if all of the city’s firefighters got to participate in the training, but it was limited to those on duty to give the training a touch of reality.

All of the city’s emergency personnel will still benefit from the exercise, Brokenshaw said.

“We had cameras going on during the whole thing and will have something coming up very soon that will give you a good insight to how it went on,” he said. “The people that weren’t there will be able to see what went on.

“They’re going to be able to see all the videos that we shot and we still have those trainers and we can still do the same thing on our end in our own groups.”

Props used by the crews were made by city firefighters, including the simulated burning airplane fuselage.

“They were made out of old fuel tanks that were left over at the drill tower,” Brokenshaw said. “One is an actual burn airplane that we use and the other one, it has seats in it. That’s the one we put victims in to get them out of.

“Ron West and Travis Willis came up with that idea and did a great job. They worked great during the drill and hopefully we can use them for more classes.”

The City Council recently approved two new companies doing helicopter tours at the airport and one will run a charter business. Mayor Robert Craft said the training was timely considering the new businesses headed to the area.

“If we’re going to do that we’ve got to be prepared for it,” Craft said. “Very impressive, good job from everybody involved.”