FRANKLIN COUNTY

A man servicing the area on Tuesday brought in a package, which then set off a radioactive explosion. The drill on Wednesday was set aside to help officials answer questions like whether or not first responders are able to get on Letterkenny Base fast enough to give the aid that these people need. The first call went out to 9-1-1 at 9:05 a.m. In the call, someone reported an explosion and several people were injured. Volunteer actors had to wait to see if they will live or die. "Events like this can happen. Weve had them happen throughout our country and we need to continually test our protocols to see if they are right," said Mark Schatte, Anti-Terrorism Officer. Letterkenny Army Depot must rely on the county and its mainly volunteer first responders to save the day. "Youve got to work together because we have limited resources all of us, but we combine them together and effectively use that, and thats success," said Schatte. By 9:15 a.m. Franklin County dispatched the call to local responders, a police perimeter went up, and the first crews were arriving on the scene from the Letterkenny Fire Department. "Id like to see it be faster. If I was sitting here with a massive fire and third degree burns, I think they ought to be here in about three minutes," said John Gray, Deputy Commander of Letterkenny Army Depot. By the end of the drill, seven different companies from around the county responded and 15 victims were assessed, triaged, and sent to area hospitals. "When that call went out, our officers, on all the gates, should have known immediately that when they come up with sirens to bring them right on through and to make sure that we get those volunteers straight here as fast as we can, thats why we work on these sorts of things because, you always have a glitch. If you can get rid of all of those glitches, it just maybe will help save someones life someday," said Gray. While it was just a mock drill, in a post 9/11 era with many questions, officials are hoping it will bring them some very real answers. Officials will now review their notes and logs of the mornings events to see what they need to work on. Reported by Gretchen Gailey" Shenandoah Downs Literally Goes Down,1150319375,1150319375,