Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Local police, fire, EMS, dispatch and others are participating in what's called a "dynamic incident response training exercise" out at the Fowlerville Fairgrounds Wednesday.

"We want to test a few things. The first thing is the arrival, the scene survey and assessment, security on the perimeter, triage and first aid to any 'victims,' contact with people who are there that may have been involved," says Therese Cremonte, Livingston County's emergency management director.

"Then, of course, setting up a unified command system, because at the end of the day, something that we would have to respond to like that would require not only all agencies, but there would have to be some type of organization cooperation between those agencies."

Cremonte says it's important the public is aware this event is only a drill, and not a real event.

"They may see unusual activity, a number of fire trucks coming through the area in Fowlerville, or down Grand River past Howell, from different agencies, all different types of apparatus," she says.

"If they're close to the fairgrounds, they may see lights and they may hear sirens, because that will be part of the scenario and response. They may hear loud music or other loud sounds. They may hear screaming which of course, is simulated."

Wednesday's exercise is scheduled to run about 10 hours. A second training exercise already is planned for Wednesday, October 22.

"What we're hoping to do is keep our training up-to-date," Cremonte added. "We've had a lot of very talented responders in Livingston County retire, and their replacements may never had this level of training before."

"We want to make sure we are all on the same page, we all know how to do our jobs, and more importantly, we know how to do them together for the benefit of the community."