via Operation Mountain Guardian Emergency Exercise | Douglas County Sheriff Newsroom | Douglas County, Colorado.

 

NEWS ADVISORY

 

Contact: Lynn Kimbrough at lmk@denverda.org (720-913-9025)

Operation Mountain Guardian Emergency Exercise

September 23, 2011 

Operation Mountain Guardian is a terrorism-based, full-scale emergency exercise scheduled to take place in numerous locations in the Denver metro area on Friday, September 23, 2011.  The exercise will involve first responders from 81 different agencies**, will be conducted at ten separate locations and will include loud noises, simulated weapons, smoke, emergency vehicles and other equipment that will be audible and visible throughout the day.

 

The purpose of this advisory is to provide information that can be disseminated to the public ahead of time to avoid confusion or concern on exercise day, as well as to invite media coverage of the event.

 

• Operation Mountain Guardian will be held at the following locations throughout the Denver Metropolitan area:

Primary Locations  Park Meadows Mall Smedley Elementary School Denver Union Station Community College of Aurora (Lowry Campus)

Secondary Locations  Denver International Airport Sky Ridge Medical Center Denver Health Medical Center University of Colorado Hospital Catholic Charities (NW Denver) Sports Authority Field at Mile High

 

• A Public Information Officer will be available at each primary location to coordinate safe access for media representatives and provide information.  A Denver Joint Information Center PIO will also be available at 720-865-7695.
  • MEDIA: Please contact the Joint Information Center or on site PIO for inquiries related to this exercise (not individual agencies). Media inquiries not associated with this event should continue to be directed to the appropriate agency.

 

• The exercise has been designed as a learning event for regional first responders to test their capabilities in a scenario that will involve a terrorist-driven catastrophic situation.  Exercise play will occur at the four primary sites and DIA. Catholic Charities and Sports Authority Field at Mile High will participate in an administrative fashion to test student/teacher processing activities. Sky Ridge Medical Center, Denver Health Medical Center, and University of Colorado Hospital will participate for the purpose of testing medical surge capabilities and communicating within Incident Command.

 

• The exercise is scheduled to begin at 0500 hours and end by 1630 hours.

NEWS ADVISORY: Operation Mountain Guardian (continued)

 

 

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND

 

• Operation Mountain Guardian is a terrorism-based full-scale exercise sponsored by the North Central All-Hazards Emergency Management Region, Denver Urban Area Security Initiative, and Front Range Metropolitan Medical Response System.  The exercise is a Homeland Security Grant funded event made possible due to grant funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through FEMA Region VIII and the State of Colorado Governor’s Office of Homeland Security.

 

• The North Central All-Hazards Emergency Management Region is one of nine emergency preparedness and response Regions within the State of Colorado.  The North Central Region (NCR) is organized around ten counties:  Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin and Jefferson.

 

• One purpose of the NCR is to improve Region-wide emergency preparedness, response and homeland security capabilities through coordinated planning, training and exercise efforts.  This exercise is evidence of the growing public safety partnership between regional emergency response agencies.

 

• Operation Mountain Guardian is part of a Regional Training and Exercise Plan established in 2009.  Planning for Operation Mountain Guardian began in January 2010 and has included several building-block events designed to prepare responders to effectively participate in the full-scale exercise.

 

• The overall Operation Mountain Guardian exercise objectives are:

 

1. Communications: Assess the ability to establish and maintain multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional communications in response to a terrorism incident.

 

2. Hazmat Response and Decontamination: Evaluate the capability to coordinate multiple hazmat response teams and assess their ability to perform initial response actions.

 

3. Public Safety & Security Response: Evaluate the ability to establish scene security and crime scene preservation, coordinate a multi-jurisdictional response, and manage intelligence information in order to mitigate the effects of the event.

 

4. Explosive Device Response Operations: Evaluate the capability to manage and coordinate explosive device response operations using regional bomb squad teams.

 

5. Onsite Incident Management: Evaluate the ability to implement the Incident Command System (ICS) and establish multi-jurisdictional command and control.

 

6. Triage and Pre-Hospital Treatment: Examine the ability of EMS to provide effective pre-hospital emergency medical care in response to a terrorism incident.

 

7. Medical Surge: Evaluate medical surge capability at area hospitals.

 

• While Operation Mountain Guardian is primarily a Homeland Security Grant funded exercise, the event will also rely heavily on local government emergency response agencies, military organizations, volunteer organizations as well as local charitable organizations.

 

 

**The following agencies are expected to participate:

 

 

1	84th Civil Support Team	51	Golden Police Department
2	Action Care	52	Greenwood Village Police Department
3	Adams County Office of Emergency Management	53	Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management
4	Adams County Sheriff’s Office	54	Jefferson County Public Health
5	Adcom 911	55	Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office
6	American Medical Response	56	Lafayette Fire Dept
7	Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office	57	Lakewood Police Department
8	Arvada Fire Department	58	Larkspur Fire Department
9	Arvada Police Department	59	Littleton Fire Department
10	Aurora Fire Department	60	Littleton Police Department
11	Aurora MMRS	61	Lone Tree Police Department
12	Aurora Office of Emergency Management	62	Longmont Fire
13	Aurora Police Department	63	Longmont Police Department
14	Aurora Public Safety Communications	64	Louisville Fire Department
15	Boulder County Sheriff’s Office	65	Louisville Police Department
16	Boulder Fire Department	66	Metropolitan Area Communications Center
17	Boulder Police Department	67	Mountain View Fire Dept
18	Brighton Fire Protection District	68	National Disaster Medical System
19	Brighton Police Department	69	North Central Region
20	Broomfield Police Department	70	North Metro Fire Rescue District
21	Buckley AFB Fire Department	71	North Washington Fire
22	Castle Rock Fire Department	72	Northglenn Ambulance
23	Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment	73	Northglenn Police Department
24	Colorado Division of Emergency Management	74	Office of Bombing Prevention
25	Colorado Information Analysis Center	75	Park Meadows Mall
26	Colorado Office of Information Technology	76	Parker Police Department
27	Community College of Aurora	77	Platte Valley Medical Center
28	Cunningham Fire Protection District	78	Porter Adventist Hospital
29	Denver 911	79	Presbyterian St. Luke’s  Hospital
30	Denver Electronic Engineering Bureau	80	Regional Transportation District
31	Denver Fire Department	81	Rural Metro Ambulance
32	Denver Health & Hospital Authority	82	Sable Altura Fire Department
33	Denver Health Paramedic Division	83	Salvation Army
34	Denver International Airport	84	Sheridan Police Department
35	Denver MMRS	85	Sky Ridge Medical Center
36	Denver Office of Emergency Management	86	South Adams County Fire
37	Denver Parks & Recreation	87	South Metro Fire Rescue Authority
38	Denver Police Department	88	St. Anthony’s Hospital
39	Denver Public Schools	89	St. Anthony Summit Medical Center
40	Denver Sheriff’s Department	90	St. Joseph Hospital
41	Denver UASI	91	Swedish Medical Center
42	Douglas County Office of Emergency Management	92	Thornton Fire Department
43	Douglas County Sheriff’s Office	93	Thornton Police Department
44	Englewood Fire	94	Tri-County Health Department
45	Englewood Police Department	95	University of Colorado Hospital
46	Environmental Protection Agency	96	VA Hospital
47	Fairmount Fire	97	West Metro Fire Department
48	Federal Bureau of Investigation	98	Western Ambulance
49	Federal Protective Service	99	Westminster Police Department
50	Franktown Fire Department	100	Wheat Ridge Fire Department
		101	Wheat Ridge Police Department