ORLANDO, Fla. — Hundreds of first responders and volunteers spent Thursday morning simulating a disaster response situation.
- Fake mass casualty incident in Central Florida
- More than 500 volunteers involved
- Tested response for first responders and hospitals
The exercise took place at multiple hospitals throughout Central Florida.
More than 500 volunteers, mostly students, helped first responders and hospitals by getting unique "injuries" added by makeup artists to correspond to the planned disaster.
Some of the scenarios are mass stabbings, shootings and other terror-style incidents that have occurred recently here in the U.S. and around the world.
More than a dozen hospitals in Orange, Lake and Seminole counties took part. The effort is to make sure they are prepared if a similar real event were to happen.
"It could happen within a nano second. It's really prudent for us to practice what we are about to do. Because if it does happen, which it very well could, we want to save as many lives as possible," explained Eric Alberts, an emergency manager with the Orlando Health Hospital System.
The disaster response simulation ran through noon Thursday.