Northville Township firefighters joined military aviators and University of Michigan Survival Flight crews for a critical care training exercise, as a Black Hawk helicopter touched down at a local park to prepare for large-scale emergencies.
The training focused on patient transfer, communications, and coordination, the kind of skills organizers said should never be practiced for the first time during a real event.
William Caruso, EMS Coordinator for Northville Township helped put the training together.
7 News Detroit reporter Christiana Ford was there and has the following report:
"We're hoping to get some practice in interacting with helicopter EMS," Caruso said. "Our opportunities to work with helicopters are fairly limited because we have short transport times," Caruso said.
Robert Casamatta, a Northville Township firefighter medic and National Guard medevac pilot, said it is only a matter of time before a real event demands this kind of coordination.
"It's not if it's going to happen, it's usually when, and it might not be a Black Hawk that gets landed here because of the separation of the military and the civilian world, but it's almost a guarantee that Northville Township before the end of my time that we will land Survival Flight here," Casamatta said.
The exercise gave Casamatta a chance to bridge both of his worlds.
"I was in an ambulance in a fire engine on Monday. I had yesterday off and then today I'm flying a helicopter and then, you know, in a couple days I'll be back on the fire engine right here," Casamatta said.
The training was open to the public. Among those who turned out was 4-year-old Dash, dressed as Darth Vader, who got a rare close-up look at the Black Hawk.
"It's cool," Dash said.
Northville Township residents said they were glad to see the training happening in their community.
Allison Callahan, a Northville Township resident, said a family connection brought her out.
"My son is in West Point right now so when I heard about a Black Hawk coming right down the street from our house I had to come check it out," Callahan said.
Ron Atzinger, also a Northville Township resident and Air Force Veteran, said he appreciated the effort.
"I never thought it'd be right in my community but it's nice that they're here to support the community and I give em credit for all the work they're doing," Atzinger said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
