Cal OES, the state’s National Guard, conducts massive earthquake training in Sonoma Valley

More than 650 first responders from across the state — including firefighters, hazardous materials teams, military specialists, medical professionals and urban search and rescue brigades — descended on the Sonoma Valley for the second day of massive disaster drills Saturday at the closed Sonoma Development Center.

The exercise, which simulates the effects of a massive 7.9 earthquake (just as powerful as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake), was sponsored by the California National Guard and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or CalOES.

Training began Friday morning, the day after the phantom earthquake occurred along the Rodgers Creek Fault System near Santa Rosa.

It was not just the earthquake victims and the trainees in the field of devastation during the two-day exercise, said Charles Tobias, assistant commander Charles Tobias of Kalos. The organizers of the exercises cast about 24 different disaster scenarios, including terrorist plots, that occurred in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Several buildings in the defunct development center have been used for different scenarios. In one scenario, which took place inside the complex’s gymnasium, a terrorist group dispersed organophosphate chemicals at a meeting of environmentalists.

In the scenario, first responders at the scene inadvertently detonated an explosive device near one of the injured.

“They blew up the package,” said Tobias, “and I killed them all.” “It increases their awareness so that anything happens to them at any time.”

In this particular scenario, such terrorist plots are not uncommon, said Linda Boyle, battalion commander, Oakland Fire Department, site captain. Although they do not usually coincide with a major disaster, the scenarios are designed to prepare first responders for a dizzying array of events.

In another scenario, the earthquake was said to have revealed a laboratory where someone had secretly cultivated E. coli for a biological attack.

Saturday’s exercises also included urban search and rescue teams who had to break through the rubble of the pillar, including concrete and wooden barriers. There have also been animal rescue teams and a new decontamination procedure for both humans and their pets.

The exercises, officially called the Sentinel Response exercise, now in its third year, said Philip White, the exercise’s lead planner, getting bigger and more ambitious each time they are performed.

“You want to train the way you want to work,” White said. “We have to do it right every time.”

You can reach General Secretary Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or [email protected]. On Twitter @pressreno.

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