FORT SILL, Okla. (Oct. 19, 2017) -- Emergency planners, responders and volunteers throughout the Fort Sill community will be participating in a three-day full-scale exercise beginning Oct. 23.
Fort Sill patrons can expect delays entering at Sheridan Road, Fort Sill Blvd., and Key Gate West from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The following gates will not be affected by the exercise: 52nd Street, Apache and Key Gate East.
All gates will return to normal operations Oct. 25.
Condon Road between Sheridan and Macomb roads will be closed Oct. 24 for the exercise. Motorists driving on Macomb Road near the Veterinary Clinic will experience delays due to emergency equipment.
The exercise may cause minor disruptions to routine Fort Sill services, so contact those respective services for details.
In addition, sirens may sound and messages may be made on all Fort Sill notification systems, emergency or otherwise, including Facebook, AtHoc, marquee and portable electric signs.
All of these messages will be precluded by the words "Exercise, Exercise, Exercise" to set apart those messages that are for exercise use only.
The annual exercise is designed to test Fort Sill's response and recovery procedures.
This year the fictitious incident involves complications arising from a hazardous material spill.
The exercise will simulate a morning train derailment where a tanker car loaded with chlorine gas begins leaking. Not only will this test Fort Sill's responders, it will also assess some of its community partner's abilities to effectively implement their emergency response plans and render aid when they are called upon.
According to Jim Carney, lead exercise planner with Fort Sill's Directorate of Plans Training, Mobilization and Security, the exercise will engage partners in responding to a chlorine gas leak and will specifically test Fort Sill's ability to manage the incident on-site, activate the emergency operations center, protect responder health and safety in addition to other tasks.
"Exercises are a safe way for the post to practice its current plans and test the effectiveness of a collective response to a serious emergency," said Carney. "Response plans will be used to practice emergency processes and help identify training needs, best practices and areas for improvement."
During the exercise individual organizations will be evaluated on their ability to accomplish their tasks, which may include responding and decontaminating, evacuating, warning the public, caring for displaced people, conducting triage, managing facilities, assessing structural damage or transferring and tracking casualties.
In particular, the exercise will focus on the post's ability to immediately care for displaced persons and a longer term focus to restore damaged infrastructure in order to resume Fort Sill's missions to train and deploy the force, said Carney.
Col. Sam Curtis, Fort Sill Garrison commander, said the full-scale exercise is to prepare for emergency scenarios that may arise.
"This year's exercise is one of many drills we have been conducting across the post to practice and test our emergency response," Curtis said.
Social Sharing