Spearheaded by the county prosecutor's office, the exercise was a countywide initiative, including participation from the county Office of Emergency Management, as well as fire department and volunteer rescue squad.

By JENNIFER GOLSON
Star-Ledger

HUNTERDON, N.J. — It started about 9:30 a.m. yesterday, with reports of smoke from within North Plainfield High School.

Rescue workers soon learned that in addition to the small fire, someone had fired shots. Seven armed assailants had gotten into the building on Wilson Avenue, and they were taking hostages.

School resource officer Eric Fowler found two of the attackers in the stairwell, and killed them both, officials said.

Officers from North Plainfield and Watchung ran upstairs and arrested another three intruders, police Chief William Parenti said.

While authorities hailed the swift response, they wanted to slow things down a bit.

This was a drill by the Somerset County Emergency Response Team to prepare for a large-scale crisis. Only one of the officials knew the scenario going in, North Plainfield police Sgt. Edward Ciempola, who is the commander of the S.W.A.T. Team, one of S.C.E.R.T.'s sub-units.

The officers who responded first, "were too efficient," Ciempola said. "It effectively freed all the hostages on the second floor in a matter of seconds."

So they altered the plans, and arranged for additional hostages. The event was structured to keep changing to see how everyone would potentially respond in an actual emergency.

Spearheaded by the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, the exercise was a countywide initiative, including participation from the county Office of Emergency Management, as well as the North Plainfield Fire Department and volunteer rescue squad, Parenti said.

Somerset Medical Center also participated, giving the hospital a chance to practice with a sudden influx of a large number of emergency patients, Parenti said.

The rescue workers trained in conjunction with local school officials. Students from the high school drama team and ROTC program participated, along with staff, all of them pretending to be victims.

The goal is to be ready should local schools find themselves facing a Columbine-style tragedy.

"These drills are always a learning experience," Prosecutor Wayne Forrest said. "We were very pleased with the outcome."

The state Attorney General's Office mandates this type of training, Parenti said.

Before the mandate, following the 1999 Columbine massacre, Forrest, then-Lt. Jack Bennett of the prosecutor's office and, then-county school Superintendent David Livingston devised a crisis management plan for the schools.

"This is a living document," Forrest said. "The police and schools worked together to tailor it to their needs."

Bridgewater police and county officials conducted a similar drill last October at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, Forrest said.

These exercises are effective, said Parenti, who is president of the Somerset County Association of Chiefs of Police Inc. They do learn from them, and it introduces local officials to the countywide agencies.

"We have never had a multi-ju- risdictional drill like this," Parenti said.

"Now when I see Capt. (Stuart) Buckman, we have a relationship. We've been in an incident together, even though it was a simulated incident," Parenti said of the S.C.E.R.T. commander. The county team includes officers from multiple law enforcement agencies.

Yesterday's drill in North Plainfield allowed the emergency responders "to test all the different disciplines," Ciempola said.

As the drama unfolded, at least 30 students would be taken hostage, two of the suspects would be killed and the rest would be taken into custody by North Plainfield police and the county S.W.A.T. team.

Copyright 2008 Newark Morning Ledger Co.