TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- Sixty members of the Magic Valley Emergency Response team trained in a trailer to test themselves against weapons of mass destruction.
Volunteer firefighters from around the area and other emergency workers teamed with 22 members of the Idaho National Guard's 101st Civil Support Team from Boise for the drills Saturday.
``They're going to get into something that's a little more than what they normally get into,'' said Bill Allred, Jerome assistant fire chief.
Members of the 101st turned the dilapidated white trailer into a simulated plague-manufacturing lab. The infectious disease is spread from being bitten by an infected rodent flea, officials said.
Members of the 101st -- active-duty Army and Air Force personnel certified for this type of duty -- were called into investigate what volunteers identified as the plague-infected liver of a groundhog. The bacteria had been harvested and put in aerosol cans, according to organizers, who told trainees that some had escaped and infected the 160-pound dummy used to represent both the victim and terrorist responsible for the lab.
``This is a typical plague set up,'' said Army Sgt. 1st Class Jere Moynihan, a communications team chief who observed and helped control Saturday's drills.
The volunteer firefighters were deliberate in their part of the investigation. It took more than 15 minutes for Matt Johnson of Burley and Jim Kelty of Gooding - dressed in protective gear from head to foot - to investigate, find the body and remove it from the trailer. By then, they were beginning to run out of air and other emergency personnel continued the job while Johnson and Kelty were decontaminated in a series of nearby blue plastic wading pools.
Moynihan said if this were a real event, it would become a federal investigation and the 101st, which can be called to serve in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, northern Nevada and Montana, would gather evidence for the FBI and other investigating agencies.
