Emergency Decontamination Drill Held

If a terror event leaves behind chemical, biological or radiological contamination in Springfield or Greene County,  emergency responders should be prepared.

On Tuesday, police, fire and other agencies held a drill, which tested their ability to decontaminate themselves and keep a deadly agent from spreading into the general population.  It took about five minutes for the Homeland Security Response Team to set up its gear and five to eight minutes for responders to be washed down three times.  Then their gear would be decontaminated or even destroyed if necessary.

"Any time you get this many people, emergency responders together, anyone, just to exercise and play together it's not just face time but it's actually hands on training.  We've worked out some things today that, 'Hey, it would be a little better if we did this’." says Karen McKinnis with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

Among the issues to be addressed, how to tell who's who when they're all dressed in the same hazmat suit.  About 40 people took part in Tuesday's emergency decontamination exercise.