FORT BLISS — In 1999, emergency crews responding to a simulated chemical attack were confronted with challenges few of them had ever had to confront.

A fire engine rolled up with windows down, and police --Êfaced with victims, played by soldiers, demanding immediate help -- climbed out of their vehicles to gain control of the crowd. Before the simulation could even develop, the rescuers were decimated, tapped by observers as casualties, dead from inhalation of the toxic chemicals.

That was the region's first mass-casualty exercise, and now Fort Bliss is in the midst of another -- the exercises are conducted at least once a year. The times have changed. Emergency responders are wiser now to threats that were unimaginable less than a decade ago. And even the equipment is more sophisticated, such as radiation detectors and other specialized technology.

The current exercise began last week with e-mails alerting key officials at Fort Bliss, with the city and with the county -- both fire and police -- that terrorist activity had been observed in South American countries. That activity was a warning that certain resources should be mobilized and ready to go in case of a local attack, said Mike Lister, chief of Plans and Operations Division and chief of the Fort Bliss Installation Operations Center.

Monday, the situation will escalate, and a full-blown crisis will develop by Wednesday, Lister said, complete with 75 to 100 soldiers playing victims, covered with fake blood if the simulation calls for it. "No matter how they react, it's going to get ugly on Wednesday," he said. "We are making this as close to the real thing as we can without having an actual (toxic) agent of some type."

Lister won't say much more about the ongoing test -- which will happen entirely on Fort Bliss property but will require city and county involvement -- because he wants the emergency responders to have to think on their feet as the scenario develops.

"It's like (the television show) 'Law and Order'," Lister said. "It's taken out of the news, and we've just modified it to suit."

Even the FBI will have a presence. "The reason we participate in these kinds of exercises is that it brings together all the jurisdictions that may have to respond to some kind of major incident, either on the Fort Bliss facility or in the city or the county," said Special Agent Andrea Simmons, an FBI spokeswoman. "It gives us an opportunity to learn each other's capabilities and limitations and responsibilities and even just to put a face with a name."

El Paso was one of the first 120 cities chosen to receive federal training for regional responses to disasters, both natural and human-caused. Training included setting up incident commands and responding to spills of hazardous materials. The 1999 exercise, which was conducted at the Socorro Student Activity Center and simulated a chemical attack at a sporting event, emanated from that mandate, Lister said.

"These were powerful lessons learned," he said.

It became clear that procedure needed to be set up to protect first responders from chemicals and other toxic agents, and that there was a problem in detoxifying the victims of the attack. The detoxifying involved safely disposing of contaminated clothing and protecting the modesty of victims required to undress for the decontamination process.

A minor real emergency developed at that first exercise when one of the "victims" developed the early stages of hypothermia -- the exercise was conducted in early November -- after she was sitting wet with little protective clothing.

"There were those procedural lessons that we have learned," Lister said.

Since then, the exercises have included chemical releases from train wrecks, sniper attacks, hostage situations, explosive bombs and radiological "dirty" bombs. The sniper attack scenario involved snipers at UTEP shooting at chemical cars on nearby rail lines. Another scenario included multiple attacks of different types.

Copyright 2008 El Paso Times, a MediaNews Group Newspaper