Seven volunteer ambulance officers got a taste of a real-life emergency during an exercise at Castlecliff beach yesterday.
The volunteers have nearly finished their National Diploma in Ambulance and yesterday they got to put everything they'd learned into practice with a "multiple casualty" emergency, involving St John Ambulance and Whanganui Fire Service staff.
"There's a lot to deal with in this situation," said Ian Tanner, a firefighter and volunteer ambulance officer.
"The scenario here is that we have 15 patients, five are trapped in a vehicle. A car was hooning along the beach and took out a bunch of people then crashed into the carpark.
"The people in the car had been drinking.
"So we've got patients with burns, patients with fractures, with head injuries, some with medical conditions. And we're also dealing with drunk people."
The ambulance students were required to assess each patient and prioritise them according to the severity of their injuries.
The patients were played by volunteers and some had been made up with impressive wounds.
Mr Tanner said students on every course had to go through an emergency exercise, and on this particular exercise the fire service had agreed to be involved.
He said the scenario was a difficult one by any standards.
"Initially an emergency like this would overwhelm your resources.
"In Wanganui we are quite isolated in terms of resources, so it's realistic."