KENNEBUNK – It is a given that no one ever wants to hear a report of an active shooter at a school, business, or anywhere else.

But should that day come, everyone wants trained professionals ready to go in, stop the shooting and save the wounded.

In Kennebunk and other communities, that training is happening.

In sessions on Friday and Saturday, Kennebunk Fire Rescue personnel and several Kennebunk Police Department officers – many of them school resource officers,  plus those from some other departments underwent professional training together, to learn how to become a rescue task force.

They learned procedures for how to care for people with gunshot wounds and be safe while doing so.

“It’s learning a mindset change,” said Kennebunk Fire Chief Justin Cooper, explaining that traditionally, rescue personnel do not enter law enforcement scenes like those involving an active shooter until there is a determination that the building is 100 percent safe, which he said in some circumstances can take hours. “That is not feasible, people can bleed and die.”

That does not mean the task force goes in under fire, but do so as portions of a building are examined and secured by initial law enforcement teams.

As well as a rescue task force, the training is also useful to the initial law enforcement personnel who respond to an active shooter call, said Cooper.

The first training took place in November, and was planned well before a call saying there was an active shooter – which turned out to be false – was made to Sanford High School and Regional Technical Center and nine other high schools across Maine.

“This training has been on my radar since before I took the job in Kennebunk,” said Cooper, who became  Kennebunk Fire Chief in early July. “It is a high priority.”

Training topics included use of a tourniquet, wound packing, applying  seals to open chest wounds,  airway management, and other aspects of what is called Tactical Emergency Medical Care. The Dec. 2 session was a combination of classroom and hands-on training at West Kennebunk Fire Company; the Dec. 3 session included a simulated active shooter scenario with mass casualties and was conducted in concert with the Southern Maine Special Response Team at Middle School of the Kennebunks.

In all, 42 people have been trained through the November and December sessions.

Cooper said it is important to train regularly.

“We hope to move forward with school resource officers, police and school departments for monthly or quarterly training,” said Cooper.

The training was conducted by Dirigo Readiness Resources Group, LLC, a service-disabled veteran and first responder- owned training and consulting business  based in York County.

U. S. Navy veteran Carlo Laserna, the company’s managing partner, formed the business in 2019. He said so far, he and business partners Chris Mooney and Matt Kaszubinski have provided 21 active shooter trainings in 2022 with at least one more on the horizon before the end of the year. By contrast, he said, the company usually is asked to conduct four to six active shooter training courses a year.

“These are not everyday EMS skills,” said Laserna, who is also a member of the special response team and the York County Haz-Mat Team. And he pointed out, “everything has to be done expeditiously because it is a compressed time environment.”

Cooper noted the training is provided through a grant from the Harold Alfond Center for the Advancement of Maine’s Workforce through the Maine Community College system.

“It’s good training,” said Jordan Bridges of Kennebunk Fire Rescue.

“This class is invaluable,” said Jason McClure, a Kennebunk Police officer and school resource officer at Sea Road School. “For school resource officers to have this is awesome.”

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