Jason Trego wants to avoid a repeat of the 1905 infamous saloon bombings in downtown Iola. “I hope that if we ever have another terrorist bombing in Iola, that I’m a little bit better prepared to handle that,” said Trego, knocking on the wood table in front of him.
Trego, Allen County Emergency Management Director, is referencing the historic night of July 10, 1905 when Charley Melvin, a strict prohibitionist, took it upon himself to light the fuses to hundreds of sticks of dynamite placed in saloons around Iola’s courthouse square.
Wanting to expand his knowledge on the subject, Trego recently participated in a homemade explosives training at Allen Community College (ACC). The course taught first responders how to identify a homemade explosive laboratory and establish scene safety.
“It was a very positive and well-attended course,” Trego said of the 45 participants who came from as far away as Topeka and Jefferson County. Trego was inspired to host the class on March 2 with ACC Criminal Justice Program Director Anthony Maness after he attended a similar course in Woodson County in August. “I took that class and realized a lot of volunteer firefighters would benefit from it.”
The main focus was to help first responders identify an explosives making operation. “You can make explosives with household materials,” said Trego. “Most people have these components in their household, but you have maybe one bottle of it. If you have a whole case, that’s a little suspicious.”
For example, Trego noted the bomb that was used in the Oklahoma City bombing was fertilizer and diesel fuel. “If you have that on a farm — not suspicious,” Trego said. “If you have it in an apartment, it’s a little suspicious.”
Trego’s training won’t stop there. In October, he heads to Socorro, N.M., for a three-day course on explosive devices. “It will focus more on preparing tools necessary in the aftermath of a bombing,” he explained.
The course will also teach participants how to identify IEDs; terrorist organizations, both foreign and domestic; and lessons learned from past terrorist incidents.
The course will include activities at a bomb range. “They will blow something up every day,” he said.
The training is funded by New Mexico Tech and doesn’t require anything from the county, aside from Trego’s time. “This training will also allow me to train others locally on a very basic level of awareness of homemade explosives,” he added.
