By Michelle Costa

If you drove past Blackfoot Wednesday morning, you probably noticed a lot of emergency vehicles. They were part of a radioactive disaster drill. The Shoshone-Bannock tribes planned an emergency management and response exercise to help train members on a hazardous materials situation.

It began with an early morning phone call. Within minutes, firefighters were on scene right off I-15 working their way through a radioactive spill.

"The purpose was to practice unified commands through planning and a lot of agencies working together," said Becky Martin, Interim Emergency Manager for Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.

There were four people in the fake car wreck, with one simulated fatality. Firefighters, members of the Homeland Security, along with state and county emergency crews evaluated this hazardous situation.

After the victims were checked out by emergency responders, they were taken in the ambulance to the Bingham Memorial Hospital.

"They pulled in the bay. We did an assessment to see if contaminated. If so, they were not allowed in," said Layne Miller, Safety Officer at Bingham Memorial Hospital.

Those brought into the radiation area were scanned to find levels of contamination, which they treated. This drill allows agencies to evaluate their response time and identify areas that need to be improved. Overall, everyone seemed pleased with their efforts.

"It's always good to know what to do and what the precautions are," said Debora Tendore, Volunteer victim.

"I feel like we did a good job. We had a good team. We had all our supplies," said Angie Mclean, ER Tech at Bingham Memorial Hospital.

Everyone made this situation as close to real life as possible.

The agencies participated in a lessons learned session Wednesday afternoon where they discussed what to change if a radioactive spill was to actually happen.