Pueblo County to hold chemical emergency preparedness simulation

PUEBLO, Colo. (KKTV) - Almost 2,000 people will participate in what officials say will be the final chemical emergency preparedness training in Pueblo County on May 3.

The annual exercise will see the use of outdoor sirens and radio alert test messages in the area surrounding the Pueblo Chemical Depot as these participants’ responses to a simulated emergency is tested. The American Red Cross, Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, First Student, local hospitals, Health Solutions, Pueblo School District 70, the Pueblo Chemical Depot, and more than a dozen first-response agency personnel from Pueblo County will participate.

Members of the public in Pueblo County will likely see participants and related activity across the county on May 3, including mock victims in realistic makeup and responders in full emergency equipment.

Officials say this will be the community’s final Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) exercise as the destruction of chemical weapons at Pueblo Chemical Depot comes to an end.