Throughout the territory Thursday people may see a lot of fire trucks, police cars and other emergency vehicles going from place to place in a hurry, but there is nothing to worry about; it is just an exercise, V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency officials say.
“You will see responders out on the road, but they won’t be running with lights and sirens,” said VITEMA Public Information Officer Christine Lett Wednesday morning by phone. “If it is a real event of some kind, they will use their lights and sirens,” Lett said.
For training and readiness, VITEMA, along with other territorial and federal response agencies, will conduct a territory-wide full-scale training exercise that will simulate multiple fire and explosives emergencies, Lett said.
Much more specific details will have to wait until after the exercises are over, she said, because responders know there will be an exercise, but won’t know its exact nature until the calls start coming in.
Firefighters, law enforcement, emergency medical personnel, emergency management, security officials, hospitals, and others will all be responding to the staged emergencies on St. Thomas, St. Croix, and Water Island. Exercise activities will occur throughout the day.
There may be controlled smoke or loud noises to make the exercise more realistic for participants, according to VITEMA. You may also see many emergency response vehicles traveling to drill locations. Unless the vehicles are using lights and sirens, they are training exercise participants and are not responding to an actual emergency.
