SWAT members roll out shock tube before detonating a breaching charge Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College Campus.
A SWAT member holds explosives during breach training Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College Campus.
Chris Sweet stops by to watch breach training Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College campus.
A helmet sits on a truck during breach training Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College campus.
A SWAT member watches a video of a breaching round explosion he took on his cellphone after detonation Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College Campus.
SWAT and members of Lewis County Sheriff's office inspect a room following the detonation of a breaching charge Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College Campus.
SWAT members inspect a room following the detonation of a breaching charge Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College Campus.
SWAT members inspect a room following the detonation of a breaching charge Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College Campus.
SWAT members inspect a room following the detonation of a breaching charge Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College Campus.
SWAT members are seen through a shattered window during breaching training Thursday afternoon in the Centralia College Campus.
At around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday you could hear, from inside an empty house on Centralia College’s campus, a Washington State Patrol SWAT team member yell “fire in the hole!” three times.
It was succeeded by a bang that rang throughout the roundabout that connects West Walnut Street and South Rock Street. A few people walking towards Kirk Library heard the explosion, did a double-take, then went back to their business.
What they heard wasn’t the WSP SWAT team responding to an actual crisis. They were training for when an actual crisis happens — whenever that may be.
“Were out here to expand our readiness in the event that we need to respond to some kind of crisis,” Sgt. Joel Anderson, a nine-year veteran of the WSP SWAT team, said. “This helps us to be able have a better readiness level for the type of events we could potentially respond to.”
Anderson led the training exercises on Thursday that were tailored for what he called the SWAT team’s “enhanced breaching program.” Out of WSP SWAT’s 26-man tactical outfit, only five explosive breachers, including Anderson, were training.
Of those five, there were members of Chelan County Regional SWAT who made the trip out to Centralia to train with WSP’s unit. It is part of a partnership Chelan County SWAT has with WSP SWAT, Anderson said.
As the title of their unit suggests — Special Weapons And Tactics team — these are tactical explosions Anderson’s men are training to use.
“We utilize explosives to gain entry and create portals into a structure where a potential suspect would be at,” Anderson said. “Whether that’s dealing with a hostage rescue type incident or a barricaded suspect or things along those lines, we’re trying to make — for a lack of better terms — a hole in a structure or an avenue to communicate through.”
Sometimes they are creating a portal in a structure to let a robot take over and navigate its way through the building.
The reality is they don’t know precisely how their services are going to be needed for any given incident. But that is precisely why they were out training on Thursday, and will be back next week, Anderson said.
Anderson was particularly gracious toward Centralia College and the partnership they have developed with the WSP.
“Just having these opportunities and the partnership with the college is a way we can give back to the community in a sense,” Anderson said. “And at the same time they are helping us out by giving us a space to train and be more prepared.”
The partnership works well on Centralia College’s end too, Director of College Relations Amanda Haines said. The old house that Anderson and his explosive teams were training at was once used for student housing and is now scheduled to be torn down later this year for the new athletic fields that the college is looking to build in 2021.
“If we can give folks an opportunity to learn something and have some training that would otherwise be hard to get, it’s a great partnership for the college,” Haines said.
