In the event of a real-life emergency, firefighters, paramedics and other professionals need to be ready to go. Thursday, 300 emergency vehicles and more than 900 firefighters and paramedics were required to respond to three different fake crises in 90 minutes or less.
This practice drill took place in north suburban Glenview.
"This is an opportunity for us to stress our system, number one, to see how robust it is, and what improvements we need to make. Number 2, we're involving other states. This is the first time we've been able to do an exercise of this scope; we're bringing in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan," said Randy Justus, Mutual Aid Box Alarm System.
The goal was for nine divisions to report back in less than 90 minutes. A total of 10 units achieved that goal, and one division reported back one minute past the deadline.
