Drill models terrorist attack

FAIRGROUNDS ? The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, along with local and county safety agencies, held a full-scale terrorism response drill to test a communication system Wednesday at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

The Costa Mesa fire and police departments were among the agencies that participated in the drill, the first held in the U.S. to test a multi-agency radio communication system to be used in the event of a disaster.

“This is an opportunity for us to test our capability,” Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona said.

In order to receive federal funding, law enforcement agencies are required test the communications system, Carona said.

The threat of terrorism today has resulted in the need for agencies to work together, Costa Mesa Fire Chief Jim Ellis said.

“When you do these types of drills you not only get to know one another, you get to know one another’s capability,” Ellis said.

The Costa Mesa Fire Department had two engines in the drill ? one to aid in the decontamination of the potentially hazardous area and the other standing by in case of a real emergency during the drill, Ellis said.

The scenario for Wednesday’s drill was a bus hijacking that turned into a possible anthrax exposure. Nearly half of the fairgrounds parking lot was blocked off for most of the day, filled with law enforcement vehicles and displays. The drill started off as any real incident would, with dispatchers communicating with responding units.

Observers listened as the radio calls were broadcast on loudspeakers: A bus had been hijacked by two armed people and was heading down Harbor Boulevard toward the fairgrounds. As the bus moved through different jurisdictions, a technician patched the radio channels together so all agencies involved could communicate with each other.

When the bus entered the fairgrounds parking lot, closely followed by three patrol cars and a police helicopter, an officer rolled out a mock spike strip to stop the bus. With guns drawn, officers ordered the hijackers out of the bus and used a police dog to bring down one of the men.

The second hijacker got out of the bus and shot at police. When police returned fire, he was wounded and didn’t get up from the pavement.

The hijacker in custody told police there was anthrax aboard the bus and inside a backpack he had abandoned near the bus.

Because of the potential terrorism hazard, the bomb squad and SWAT team were called in to the scene. One by one, the SWAT team evacuated the bus passengers until the area could be cleared to evaluate the mock hazard.