GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) – Greenville County Emergency Management and SLED hosted a training exercise on the campus of Bob Jones University testing several agencies’ emergency response capabilities.

“We never want something like this to happen,” Anderson County Sheriff’s Office PIO, Shale Remien said. “We pray something like this never happens but in a world we live in today we need to be prepared for anything that is thrown at us.”

Swat and bomb squads were dispatched to a simulated active shooter threat 

and hazmat teams monitored for any hazardous substances. 

“As Greenville County we work together every day,” Deputy Director of Greenville County Emergency Management, Pierce Womack said. “Our SWAT, bomb, and hazmat team respond to incidents. Larger events, things just as Artisphere, Fall for Greenville, and things at the Well (Bon Secours) are big events. Greenville does a great job on the first response side of that but those are very large scale so we would be calling in other counties.”

Agencies participating in Tuesday’s exercise include the Greenville and Anderson County Sheriff’s Office SWAT and Bomb Squad, Greenville and Anderson County Hazmat, Upstate Incident Management Team, Greenville County EMS, and Prisma Health. 

With so many agencies, leaders tell us communication was a high priority.

“With an exercise like this they never know what is going to be thrown at them,” Remien said. “It forces them to get outside of what they would normally do and look at it from a different perspective in order to save as many lives as possible.”

They all say one of the most important takeaways from the training will be the evaluation. 

“There are evaluators here from different parts of the state, and different regional teams,” Womack said. “They are here and able to grade, look, and judge to see what they think might be our weaknesses. As we talk as a team after this we hotwash ourselves but those evaluators provide comments from a different perspective.”

The training exercise will also be hosted on Thursday, May 18th. 

Agencies participating Thursday will include South Carolina Task Force 6, Upstate Incident Management Team, Spartanburg County EMS – Regional Medical Assistance Team, Greenville County EMS, and Prisma Health.