WMD Disaster Drill: Exercise St. Louis Training 2-DVD

This month and next month, we cover Exercise St. Louis - a large WMD scenario which not only involved local resources but state and federal response assets as well. If an intense or protracted disaster or WMD event occurs in your area, you’ll be working with these out-of-town teams so here’s a chance to see how they’ll be working with your responders.

The scenario simulated a high-profile summit meeting for governmental officials and other dignitaries. At such an event, it would be normal to send along the Marines’ Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF) and to pre-stage the local Civil Support Team, an arm of the National Guard. Both groups have their specialties in hazmat response, haz-med treatment, and the monitoring, detection, and sampling of foreign chemical substances or agents. One of the focal points of the exercise was the interaction of civilian and military response teams.

At the meeting, a simulated airborne substance was released and formed the basis of the response. At the same time, a simulated bomb was to go off in an adjacent parking garage resulting in a structure collapse. The garage collapse scenario, run simultaneously with the other scenario, will be covered in detail in next month’s program, 06-12, along with analysis of both scenarios and information on how to plan your own area WMD event, complete with related planning documents.

This month Working Fire Training concludes Exercise St. Louis - a large WMD scenario which not only involved local resources but state and federal response assets as well. If an intense or protracted disaster or WMD event occurs in your area, you'll be working with these out-of-town teams so here's a chance to see how they do business and how they’ll interact with your responders.

Exercise St. Louis, Part II covers the second scenario involved in the overall exercise -- the detonation of some device which collapsed a parking garage. The garage was fictitiously located next to the summit meeting venue where, as we covered last month in Part I, an airborne agent was released. In reality, the collapse was simulated at a local rock quarry, enabling searches of large debris piles. The Marines' Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF) was also present at this scenario, performing heavy rescue work and medical response.

Following the exercise, Working Fire Training conducted follow-up interviews and a roundtable discussion with many of the participants to discuss what went well and what needed improvement. The complete roundtable discussion can be viewed at www.workingfire.com. Finally, we present information from the planners of the event regarding the issues and tasks involved in staging such an event so you can create a WMD/disaster exercise of your own. See copies of many of the necessary forms that will assist you in your planning effort at the end of this version of the training materials.