Terrorists flying a cargo plane set out from California on a flight path to Washington, DC with the intent of dropping a “dirty bomb” on the District of Columbia. While flying over Colorado Springs, the dirty bomb explodes blowing a hole in the side of the aircraft. Radioactive material falls over Sky Sox stadium in Colorado Springs where a crowd has gathered to enjoy an afternoon baseball game. The plane quickly loses altitude, crashing into the former restaurant at Meadow Lake Airport in Falcon where several people were attending a meeting on the second floor. The building collapses causing many injuries to the attendees. Radioactive chemicals from the dirty bomb contaminate the scene.First to respond at Meadow Lake airport is Falcon Fire Chief Trent Harwig. Chief Harwig quickly assesses the situation, calls for further assistance and, while attending to the wounded, is notified that the cargo plane contained a dirty bomb and radioactive chemicals. He has contaminated himself, the other first responders and the wounded. Upon hearing of the contamination, Deputy Chief Alex Donnell went into action to set up a “cold zone” about 350 yards away from the incident site. A command center was set up at the cold zone, and HAZMAT was called in and a decontamination site was erected. A “Flight for Life” helicopter was ready to transport the severely injured to awaiting local hospitals.This was all part of a county-wide emergency preparedness exercise conducted by the city of Colorado Springs and the El Paso County Office of Emergency Management. Coordinated by Captain Scott Smith, emergency manager at the city of Colorado Springs, and Jim Mesite, emergency manager based at the El Paso County sheriff’s office, the details of the exercise were kept secret from the participating agencies and departments to ensure realism from the response teams.The exercise involved numerous agencies and volunteers at Meadow Lake Airport alone. There were 20 AmeriCorps volunteers playing the injured. The realism of the event extended to the extensive make-up and moulage on the “victims” provided by Verleen Hanes.According to Jim Mesite, the exercise was extremely helpful in assessing the efficiency and expediency in responding to large-scale emergencies and disasters, and, because of this type of training, the city and county readiness ability to handle real time, large-scale incidents will greatly improve.
