WATSEKA --- While emergency responders answered the calls to two REAL events Sunday….other fire, police, ambulance and emergency management personnel were practicing for what could be an actual event.

 mock drill involved a Search & Rescue.

The driver of the car in the mock-accident informed ambulance personnel that four other occupants were in the car.  That triggered an “open area search” by the fire and auxiliary police responders.

The exercise participants tested emergency management protocol, including paging, communication, mutual aide, incident command operations, and functions in the emergency operations center.

Watseka Auxiliary Police and Watseka Fire set-up the exercise involving a single-car rollover accident and the four missing occupants of the vehicle.  The mock-disaster scene was southeast of Watseka.

Emergency responders set up a staging area at the Iroquois County Courthouse.  After a dispatch from the county 9-1-1 Center, a MABAS 37 box alarm activated several participating fire departments.  The Mutual Aide Box Alarm brought responders from the Watseka, Milford, Martinton, Ashkum, Crescent-Iroquois, Stockland, and Woodland fire departments.  

Communication dispatch service from 9-1-1 and the Emergency Services & Disaster Agency were active participants as well.

River Valley Recycling and Pence Oil also provided assistance with the exercise.

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