Watch: Simulated Disaster Creates Hundreds of 'Victims'

NORTH CHARLESTON — Here's the scene: there has been an explosion at a nightclub in the Lowcountry. There are hundreds of burn victims. 

That was Tuesday's simulated disaster exercise that brought in more than 15 Lowcountry emergency responder teams to Westcott's amenity building on Patriot Boulevard. 

Results of the exercise — where responders excelled and where improvements are needed — will not be reviewed for another month, according to Dorchester County Emergency Management Director Mario Formisano, who was on scene in multiple roles for the exercise. 

Formisano said the exercise tests inter-operational communication, incident management and triage by agencies. 

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Exercise director and Dorchester County Emergency Medical Services Director Doug Warren said the exercise was part of preparedness for Homeland Security and making sure operations are efficient in case of a real disaster.

"The purpose of today's exercise is to test first responders' as well as all of the area hospitals' preparedness in the management of a situation that produces a large number of injured parties," he told Patch. "We have to prepare for these events. We hope they never happen, but inevitably something occurs."