West Maple Farm Hosts Mock Rescue Bus Drill for Hatzoloh of Rockland Emergency Volunteers

by M.C. Millman

West Maple Farm in Monsey hosted a mock rescue bus drill training session this afternoon or Hatzoloh on the farm on West Maple Road. 

Preparation is key when it comes to disasters, so when there is an opportunity to create a realistic environment to simulate a disaster event, it's an opportunity not to be missed by those who are serious about saving lives. 

With the recent bus accident on Fessler Drive in December fresh in many people's minds, a school bus rescue drill made sense. 

It was also helpful that West Maple Farm had recently purchased a bus in this instance.

"I bought the bus," Zev Oster, proprietor of West Maple Farms, shares with Rockland Daily, "because I will be taking out the seats and turning the bus into a corn box by filling it with corn kernels for the kids to play in inside the bus instead of in sand. A guy in my shul who is an instructor for Hatzoloh heard about the bus and asked if he could use it for a Hatzoloh training before the seats are removed."

A second bus was brought in as well for the mock rescue drill as well as three ambulances which were lined up beside the buses to facilitate the "rescue". The exercise went as perfectly as the weather, making it the right day to be outside to work on lifesaving skills for an emergency that we all hope will never need to be put into action.