Emergency responders wearing hazardous material suits are sprayed down in a decontamination area in the parking lot of the Lied Center during a large-scale disaster training exercise on Thursday, June 18, 2015. The exercise, which involved a chemical spill and involved multiple emergency response agencies including law enforcement, fire and medical and Lawrence Memorial Hospital was funded through a grant to the Douglas County Emergency Management.

The large numbers of firefighters and police officers near the Lied Center on Thursday weren’t part of a real emergency, but were a sample of the approximately 200 people participating in a mock disaster involving a hazardous chemical spill near the Kansas University campus.

“I think it went well,” said Bob Newton, a duty officer for the Douglas County Emergency Management Department. “You always learn a lot when you do an exercise like this.”

The live exercise involved a truck carrying a chlorine cylinder that began to leak. The driver became overcome by fumes. Some bystanders were burned by the leaked chlorine while others suffered respiratory problems. As part of the exercise, officials transported a “victim” from the Lied Center to LMH, and other volunteers who were acting as victims checked into the LMH emergency room with a variety of ailments.

Agencies that participated in the simulation included Douglas County Emergency Management; Kansas University Public Safety; Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical; Lawrence Memorial Hospital; Lawrence Police Department; Douglas County Sheriff’s Office; Kansas Highway Patrol; Douglas County Emergency Communications Center; Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center; and the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.

Teri Smith, director of Douglas County Emergency Management, said the exercise was funded by an $80,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. She said local agencies also had expenses related to personnel time and use of equipment, but she said the training exercise is worth the investment.

Leaders said Thursday’s exercise was particularly helpful because it involved activating three emergency operations centers: one at Douglas County Emergency Management, one at KU and one at LMH.

“Usually one of the first issues that comes up is communications,” Newton said. “We don’t get to practice communications between agencies that often. They’re all used to responding to emergencies. That’s in a day’s work, but when an incident becomes a certain size, it changes the protocols and some of the communication becomes different.”

The various agencies involved will have debriefings and produce reports in the coming days on what went well and what aspects of the response could be improved, Smith said.

Smith said the county tries to host a major exercise about every two years, although it is dependent upon grant availability.