RENO, Nev. (AP) -- Several hundred firefighters, law officers and other emergency workers in Washoe County will tackle a fictitious terrorist plot in a full-scale training exercise involving hazardous materials this fall.
''It's going to be the largest-scale exercise in the region,'' said Aaron Kenneston, county emergency operations manager.
The November exercise is made possible due to a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Homeland Security Department to cover extra pay for the first responders, Kenneston said.
Sparks officials will lead the drill. Trainees will don chemical-protection suites in their pursuit of the mock terrorists, he said.
Reno officials oversaw a training exercise in late May at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. County deputies took to casino rooftops to look for pretend terrorists who shot down an aircraft with a shoulder-fired missile launcher.
The county oversaw a flood-alert exercise earlier in the year.
Kenneston said the federal grant is a welcome relief because past exercises have been funded with a barely adequate budget.
''It's the age-old problem in emergency management and first responders,'' he told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
''While you are planning and doing an exercise, real-life exercises occur. Everybody has to reel up the hoses and go respond.''
About 20 to 30 responders will begin with a weeklong training program on how to conduct a training exercise to meet Homeland Security standards, go through several tabletop exercises and then put together the regional exercise, he said.
They'll conduct exercises, drills and keep refining the exercise in monthly progress reviews.
Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal
