DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado’s North Central All-Hazards Region will be holding a functional bioterrorism attack exercise on Oct. 7 through 9, and officials are warning residents to ensure there is no panic.
The exercise has been dubbed “Operation Crimson Spore” and will be supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency National Exercise Division to evaluate local bioterror attack response plans and procedures.
“This exercise provides a critical opportunity for our metro-area partners to come together across jurisdictions and disciplines to strengthen how we coordinate, share information and deliver timely response and public messaging during a complex incident,” said Michelle Deland, exercise director and emergency manager at North Metro Fire Rescue District, in the North Central All-Hazards Region release. “What makes this exercise unique is the length and scale of the simulated event—we’re testing our ability to sustain operations over days, with wide-reaching impacts. The lessons learned here will directly enhance our region’s preparedness and response capabilities to protect and serve the public in real-world emergencies.”
The NCR is organized around ten counties and the cities therein and includes Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin and Jefferson counties. Over 35 metro jurisdictions, agencies and organizations are slated to participate in the exercise, including hospitals.
The exercise being planned for next week will act as a capstone event for the multi-year regional training and exercise that encompassed multiple years of planning by a range of local government staff, the NCR said.
The exercise will “test objectives related to bioterror incident response actions,” which includes surveillance and detection, system-wide coordination, risk communications and incident consequence management.
The exercise has also been intentionally designed to use resources from multiple levels of government, while keeping the focus for participants’ actions on local metro area personnel, according to the NCR.
“A functional exercise like Operation Crimson Spore allows participants to respond and operate from their jurisdictional and agency offices,” the NCR said in its announcement of the exercise. “It is designed to bring together organizational leadership, public health staff and emergency management staff from a wide array of local governments in addition to FEMA NED and North Central Region staff.”
There are over 60 federal, state and local partners volunteering to roleplay, simulate bad actor activities and evaluate participants’ plans.
“Historically, the North Central Region has designed and supported preparedness exercises that engage the full spectrum of capabilities needed to protect the community,” said Scott Kellar, NCR regional director, in NCR’s release. “Public safety agencies and private sector partners use exercises to gain feedback on their plans, processes and procedures. These exercises improve community preparedness by assisting entities in refining their approach to likely threats and risk areas, including wildfire, flood, active shooter, tornado, biological and more.”
Key exercise partners include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Health & Human Services, the Colorado Department of Health and Environment and the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
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