A dazzling spectacle, children arriving for Little League practice on Wednesday, April 23, at the practice field at Beacon Elementary were greeted by a helicopter lifting off.

The Montesano Fire Department and Grays Harbor County Fire District 2 had been holding a training at the field with Airlift Northwest, an entity of University of Washington Medicine.

In total, 42 people from Fire District 2 and the Montesano Fire Department participated in the training. The practice field will serve as the landing zone in cases of emergencies in the future. The training focused on landing zone procedures for setting up, requirements for safe operations around the helicopter and patient loading procedures.

The helicopter landed at about 6 p.m. and left just before 7 p.m.

“We practiced giving LZ (landing zone) reports and size up with airlift, and when they were about three to five minutes we gave our landing report,” Montesano Fire Department Lt. Rick Watkinson said. That report includes overhead wires, obstructions, civilians and trees.

The fire department and district are training for the potential that the situation will be necessary.

“We are training in anticipation of it happening,” Watkinson said. “It’s just a shift in that we’ll be working with them more to get patients to definitive care as quickly as possible. For certain people at times it can be safer, but it’s also more expensive. But it’s also in their best interest.”

Watkinson said he contacted the school direct before the training and was told the field would be empty, but near the end of the training the Monte Fitness T-ball team started arriving for practice.

In general, Watkinson said the training went well.

“We got a lot of positive feedback from the people that were there,” he said. “If we’re dealing with a helicopter, it can be very stressful. We had good questions and answers to the expectations and operational procedures. Overall, I think it was a success.”