Around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, those who live and work in the Nationals Park neighborhood might be in for a mini-scare when they see a bunch of fire department and armed forces vehicles parked outside of the ballpark. We say mini-scare because who the heck would plan an attack on a ballpark in December, right?
Wednesday’s exercise will actually be a drill for the D.C. Fire Department and the U.S. Marines Corps’ Chemical Biological Incident Response to simulate the joint response to a major terrorist biochemical attack. The drill will involve D.C. fire personnel working with roughly 150 Marines and sailors from the Marine unit trained to counter the effects of a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident.
Unlike a similar simulation held at RFK Stadium this summer, this event is not open to the public. The summer event simulated a Category 2 hurricane hitting the city, leaving almost 90,000 homes without power and low-lying areas flooded. Hundreds of volunteers and city employees simulated using RFK as a mega-shelter.
