More than 100 local first responders attended the training session.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. Homeland Security wants to make sure that if a terrorist attack happens in Western Massachusetts, first responders know what to do.

 

Officials spanning from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to local fire, police, and boards of health, sat down on Wednesday to discuss the various roles each will play in a scenario in what of the largest training exercises in recent years.

 

The Western Regional Homeland Security Council put on the daylong seminar and ultimately will craft a report showing the strengths and weakness. Future resources and trainings will help close the "gap" in response, according to Homeland Security Program Manager Raine Brown.

 

"We have people in the room who have never interacted with each other before ... that's unique to have that many people from that many disciplines," Brown said. "We designed the scenario so that it would include as many first responding organizations as possible."

 

The scenario pretended that an unidentified package, possibly a bomb, was reported at a rail yard. Eventually, other packages are found and one explodes in a different part of the county. The organizations talked through every step of the response as the incident grows and sorted out various roles — finding areas of potential problems.

 

"The goal is to look at existing policies and procedures and identify gaps," said council Chairman Thomas Grady. "At the end of this we are going to develop an action plan."

 

Locals responders — police, fire, emergency medical services — from Great Barrington to North Adams attended the session. They were joined by representatives from the FBI, Homeland Security, the National Guard and the federal Department of Transportation. State officials from the Department of Environmental Protection, emergency management, public health, transportation and various departments of the state police — hazmat, bomb response and incident management — also participated. Representatives from the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, Berkshire Medical Center, local boards of health members, selectmen, and representatives from both CSX and PanAm Railways were also there.

 

In total more than 100 responders participated.

 

"It is overwhelming in a really good way. This is a great collective think tank," Grady said.

 

The anti-terrorism exercise in the Berkshires is the first of four that Homeland Security is putting on. In the coming months, the same tabletop exercise will be held in the other three Western Massachusetts counties. 

 

"The Homeland Security Council decided to do this after the 2013 marathon bombing," Brown said.

 

The session was headed by John Meyer from Homeland Security's office of infrastructure protection stakeholder readiness. He and his team lead workshops across the country. Evaluators from local disciplines will compare the responses throughout the session to standardized protocols to contribute to the report. 

 

"In June, we'll pull it together with an after action report," Brown said.

 

Grady added that the session isn't just for the various groups to confer but also helps direct the efforts of the Homeland Security Council. The council provides training and other resources and the report will help direct their actions.

 

The council has organized other trainings and various agencies also put together exercises and most of those center around hazardous materials, Grady said. 

 

"It is a different flavor to the exercises but not the first," Grady said.