Agencies hold mock-terror drill at mall
Federal, state, and local agencies this morning staged the largest anti-terror drill in New England since Sept. 11, 2001, simulating the response to a mock detonation of a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the food court of the CambridgeSide Galleria.
Hundreds of firefighters, military, paramedics, and police converged on the mall at dawn, creating a massive triage and decontamination center to treat people acting the roles of exposed and wounded in the exercise.
The entire exercise, which was dubbed Operation Poseidon and included similar scenarios throughout the region, was monitored from the sidelines by roving teams of federal, state and local observers, who will use what went right and what went wrong to better prepare for a similar real world event.
Authorities said their critique of the drill is months away and declined to talk about mistake made, though they said the lessons learned are often simple.
“Certain equipment that was designed for certain operations and may not lend itself to going up and down stairs," said Cambridge Fire Chief Gerald Reardon at a press conference after the drill. He added such drills can also help ferret out something as basic as an inactive pager or cell phone. "We will find out exactly what the pluses are and the minuses."
Watching the drill, and in interviews with some of the 215 volunteer victims, mistakes were made. Victims talked about passing rescue workers not asking them if they could be helped despite the volunteers showing signs that they were bleeding to death. Other volunteers said officials were slow to bring buses for the mass evacuation.
Those glitches, however, are why the drill was held, officials said.
"Anytime you have an explosion situation where people are going to have to evacuate quickly and in a panicked mode, this is pretty much what we expect to see," said Reardon. "There is a lot of chaos and panic in the beginning. It takes a little while to corral people in. If you're standing there and expect to be transported within 15 seconds of exiting any venue, that's not going to happen."
