Cries for help fill the air as ACT Fire and Rescue arrives at the scene of a serious crash in Hume.
At least nine, including a baby, are trapped in the wreck of an accident involving a tourist bus and two sedans on a narrow road without street lights.
The first batch of firefighters, arriving in two pumpers, or fire trucks, are confronted by one car on its roof while a few metres away, the bus is on its side with its windscreen blocked by the bottom of another flipped sedan.
Thankfully, this worst-case scenario is only a simulation, part of ACT Fire & Rescue's (ACTFR) stage three technical rescue course.
A night-time mass casualty event is designed to train third-year firefighters in a safe emergency response alongside paramedics.
The Canberra Times bears witness to the scene, set up carefully by educators from ACTFR and the ACT Ambulance Service (ACTAS), with the help of mannequins and a bulldozer parked nearby.
Some of these plastic casualties are high-fidelity mannequins costing between $50,000 and $100,000 that can blink, have a pulse, make sounds and breathing movements.
The cars, sourced from Access Recycling, have been marked with spray paint to show that they have been rendered safe from fuel and electrical hazards.
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The entire exercise, sometimes lasting between one to three hours, has been meticulously planned, from the casualties' injuries to on-site safety risks, forcing the graduating class to think on their feet.
Superintendent Bruce Chancellor says their standard response to any motor vehicle accident in the ACT is to send out two fire trucks.
"Once [the first batch] turned up, they've said, 'Right, this is bigger than we thought, we're going to need another truck', and that's when they also called for the tech rescue pod," he says.
The pod is a large shipping container that has been dropped off at the location, and houses extra tools required in such a mass rescue operation, including safety gear, cutters, spreaders, closers, and generators.
The third-years have triaged three mannequins who are not seriously injured and another whose status changed, shortly after the crash, from casualty to "victim" indicating death.
The remaining four remain trapped in the wreckage of the crash which is now lit up by standing portable lights.
One of them, in the upturned sedan, is being treated by two paramedics through a broken side window while firefighters on the other side are trying to cut out the vehicle's doors and free the patient.
They previously broke the patient's glass window and covered the frame using what the ACTFR describes as "industrial-strength cling wrap" to cover sharp edges.
At this time, two examiners in dark blue uniforms are observing the third-years from a few metres away, and presumably grading their efforts and noting feedback for later.
Superintendent Chancellor says no firefighter can "fail" ACTFR training, instead, they are supported with further coaching and training if their performance is not up to the required standard.
There is a nip in the air but the gloved-up firefighters in helmets and fluorescent yellow overshirts and pants are working up a sweat trying to stabilise the 10-tonne bus with inflatable bags and black wooden bricks.
Soon it is safe enough for a paramedic to enter through the emergency roof exit and treat two patients with limbs trapped under the weight of the bus.
Meanwhile, one of the firefighters directing the flow of resources at the scene has, in discussion with his peers, decided the best way to extricate a patient trapped in the car in front is to remove its roof.
The car's rear window, broken and clingwrapped, poses as an entryway for a paramedic to access a patient trapped in the driver's seat whose cries are remote-controlled by the ACTAS educator's phone.
"It's so that they don't forget that there's a patient there," Wade Smith from ACTAS says, pressing the "man screaming in pain" audio cue on his screen.
About 30 minutes later, the roof has been successfully separated and the patient has been carried to the ambulance on a stretcher.
"We need more hands please," the instructing firefighter says as they simultaneously lift the bus and extricate the pair of patients one by one.
They do the lifting swiftly and carefully because they only have a couple of minutes before crush syndrome - a rapid release of toxins in people rescued from being trapped under heavy objects - worsens the patient's condition.
The challenging drill, also classed as a heavy vehicle incident, is testing firefighters' leadership skills, rescue planning, teamwork with other emergency services, all while staying safe themselves.
At its core, the drill highlights the diverse skill set of modern firefighters, keeping them sharp and crisis-ready even when there isn't a fire in sight.
Superintendent Chancellor says: "Although they're not station officers yet they won't be in charge at an incident but they could very well find themselves being in charge of a sector [of firefighters].
"What we're looking for is those technical skills to be able to assess their sector, come up with an extrication plan and direct the firefighters in their sector to playing out that plan," he says.
