Chicago Fire Department holds active shooter drill

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago Fire Department held an active shooter drill Wednesday where the wounded were actors in convincing make-up, but the first responders were real.

Officials said they were looking at this week's Manchester Arena bombing in their efforts to prepare for tragic events in Chicago.

On Wednesday, as part of the drill, a mock active shooter entered a building and opened fire, wounding several people. A Chicago SWAT team moved in and then CFD paramedics treated the victims.

"Chicago has been lucky through all these tumultuous years of somehow escaping this type of an event, but we're trying to prepare for it the best we can," said Christopher Wagner, CFD assistant director of training.

CFD showed how they're improving the collaboration with the Chicago Police Department if a situation like this happened.

"Once they secure the area, they go looking for the perpetrator or perpetrators and then we come in once they tell us it's ok, we set up and we start extracting victims," said CFD Chief Juan Hernandez.

Police and fire authorities said they are ironing out the kinks in communicating during an event like this, and learning from the recent suicide bombing in Manchester.

"The offenders were waiting for the crowd to exit and so we're always of the mindset of preparing for an event happening within a venue and now we have to worry about as the people are now exiting," Wagner said.