HAZMAT -TED

"What an odd title for a blog" you may be thinking. Of course after you read on you will soon know why.
A couple of weeks ago I was asked by my friend if I wanted to join in on a late night service project for his ward. I said "sure" and headed over at around 9:00 p.m.

Around 10:00 we arrived at the Ice Skating Rink up here in SL and met up with his ward. We were promptly handed a laminated piece of paper with a condition and symptoms written on it. At this time I had no idea what we were in for. I was thinking, Service project = planting flowers at the local park or something like that. I leaned over and asked my friend Jon "What are we doing" I was told that we would be pretending we were sick. Soon found out we would be part of an annual test for the fire department and hospital in case of a severe emergency. Before beginning this exercise we were given a scenario. The story went like this. We were at a party at the ice skating rink and someone had taken the Zamboni and poisoned the ice with a chemical and we became contaminated. So armed with our story we headed outside on the lawn to await the fire department. At this point in time the fire department and the hospital (except for a few people) had no idea that this would be going on that night. They showed up and really believed that we were contaminated with a deadly chemical and told us to stay where we were and not touch them. Too bad most of us had the giggles and couldn't keep straight faces for more than a minute. Soon I believe the whole department was aware of what was really going on but they had to continue on with the drill. So we waited for a while while they set up the trailer to spray us all down. We had to give them our names and tell them what was wrong with us. Our symptoms included "Sweaty palms, unsteady gait, tingling in our hands and feet." I at this point was pretty scared because they were telling us we needed to strip down and completely wash off. Luckily as I said before they knew this was just a drill and so they were messing with us. Finally after a long wait it was girls on the left, boys on the right and we each in turn stepped into the trailer where normally you would strip down, shower and throw away anything you touched (including cell phones, purses, anything). After they handed each of us a white jump suit that we had to put on and wait until the ambulance showed up. I had my first (and hopefully last) ride in an ambulance over to the hospital. By this time it was about 12:30 A.M and we headed over to the emergency room where before we went into the hospital we were surrounded again by firemen. This time covered head to toe in protective gear. I felt like I was in one of those sci-fi movies. They had us step into the trailer again to walk through several different shower areas. They explained what it would be like in a real situation and I hope and pray I never really have to experience anything like that. You are already traumatized by the fact that you are contaminated and then you have to strip completely naked in front of strangers (most likely men) and throw everything away. Scary stuff! Then we went up and were greeted by a doctor and nurse and brought into the hospital where we received several strange looks from the people in the waiting room. We had to speak to a few more nurses who took our vitals and then wrote down on their charts what they would do if it were a real situation. This part was kind of funny because we all received fake names mine was "Dance, Disaster" We finally got out of there around 2:00 a.m. (had to get up for work at 6:00 a.m) and rode back to our cars in an ambulance. It was quite an interesting night and most definitely the strangest service activity I'd ever done. I met some great people and had a fun night. Now for the pictures.


Erin, me and Jon
Otto, Jon, me (and half of Erin) a little too happy after being Hazmat-ted

This picture was taken by the nice fireman

Jon and I pretending to be so upset about our ordeal. "We are never going ice skating again!"