Bringing down house

Lakeside Inn becomes a 'battleground' for first responders

SANDPOINT — If she didn't possess the architectural stature to be called Sandpoint's grand dame, then the venerable Lakeside Inn now lying in a squalor of ruin and debris at least had the grace, charm and polish to seem almost like a storybook inn on the banks of a storybook lake in a storybook town.

For a half century, the motel that felt more like a queue of enchanted cottages angled into a spit of land fronting the shores of Sand Creek where flocks of swans were drawn lost its fairy tale-like allure yesterday when it took on the horrific face of a staged mass-casualty attack.

The final leg of a $950,000 Homeland Security training program that drew more than 600 first responders to Sandpoint over a five-week period, the scene of sheer devastation with "wounded hostages" moaning inside the walls of the smoldering, half-destroyed motel was as real and as frightening it gets.

And at times, with helmeted SWAT teams and columns of police with drawn guns racing through smoke-filled rooms, it felt almost too real.

"For us, this an irreplaceable opportunity to be able to use a facility like this for a mock-terrorist attack that includes the taking of hostages," said Art DuFault, project manager for Operation Road Trip designed to give first-hand training in life-threatening scenarios in terrorist assaults.

"We think those who have been trained here over the last several weeks will recognize what to do and how to react to any chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosive incident. It's wonderful to have a real-life setting like this to get us close to the real thing."

The all-day exercise brought local law enforcement, fire fighters, EMS and HazMat teams, urban search and rescue units and even the military swarming around the partially dismantled inn slated for demolition by the Idaho Department of Transportation, which purchased the motel to make way for the proposed Sand Creek Byway.

It also drew members of Idaho National Guard 101st civil support team from Boise which made an impressive entrance onto the scene littered with drifts of fallen 2x6s, siding and chunks of a roof.

Several weeks ago, eight rooms at the inn were torched that allowed the motel to become a training tool for firefighters and arson investigators around the state. The training gave crews a chance to learn the nuts and bolts of investigating fire as well as recognizing fire loads and flashover.

"The keys to making something like this work with great effectiveness are communication, coordination and cooperation, which are the three biggest parts of an incident command system," said Joe Farago, public information officer for Operation Road Trip. "It's all about how you plug 100 guys responding to a mass casualty incident and having it run like clockwork."

After taking a mock 911 call at 7 a.m., first responders quickly poured onto the grounds of the inn and went to work, searching rooms with weapons drawn, setting up command posts, and moving in carefully before hauling out survivors.

"They did everything right," said DuFault. "They're ready."

Their presence in Sandpoint, which ends this weekend when Operation Road Trip officially closes, will be markedly missed.

"It has been so awesome and positive having them be part of this community," said R. J. White, executive director of the Downtown Sandpoint Business Association, who said DSBA helped maximize their exposure to the community. "It wasn't that they just gave a great boost to the local economy; it was a wonderful feeling to see them walking around in the uniforms and gear knowing what they were learning from this training."