A DRILL ON HAZARDOUS CLEANUP : EMERGENCY TEAMS SHARPEN RESPONSE.

Byline: Terry Kanakri Daily News Staff Writer

The city was the center of a simulated disaster Tuesday that brought hazardous materials teams from across Ventura County together in an exercise to improve their response to major disasters.

Staged at the Simi Valley sanitation plant at 600 W. Los Angeles Ave., the drill gave team members a rehearsal they hope will translate into a better and more efficient response during a real disaster.

The exercise, which lasted from about 8:30 a.m. to noon, was unannounced to emergency response personnel to maintain the element of surprise.

``Sometimes, when you announce it, people prepare for it. When you don't announce it, you make it very realistic, and you also see your true readiness,'' said Dave Festerling, assistant chief with the Ventura County Fire Department. ``What you learn is how ready you really are to attack this type of a situation.''

Participants in the drill included members of hazardous materials teams from across the county, including Moorpark, Ventura, Oxnard, Point Mugu and Port Hueneme, officials said.

They responded to a mock incident in which a one-ton chlorine cylinder was said to have dropped, spewing poisonous gas into the air at the sanitation plant, forcing the evacuation of employees and injuring four people.

Simi Valley was the site of a real chlorine leak in January 1989, which forced the evacuation of 12,000 people in the western part of the valley.

A partially opened valve in a storage tank was blamed for the spill at Travelin' West Textiles at 45 W. Easy St., where the leak occurred in a tank owned by Olympic Chemical.

Chlorine seeped for nearly 13 hours from a 5,000-gallon, 30-ton storage tank, forming a cloud that at its peak measured 600 yards long, 100 yards wide and 300 yards deep.

Residents were evacuated from a 5-square-mile area, including about 3,000 students from 11 public and private schools. The Ronald Reagan Freeway and dozens of surface streets were closed throughout the day, and rail traffic through the city was halted.

At Tuesday's mock disaster, hazardous materials personnel dressed in their protective gear and entered the site of the accident, determined the extent of the accident, closed off the area, and retrieved victims.

``This is as close to reality as you're going to get, and it provides us with a learning tool for all of our personnel,'' said O.J. Hunt, a Fire Department spokesman who was on the scene.

Hunt said that this was the first unannounced drill held since a cooperative agreement was officially signed earlier this year between the five haz-mat teams that serve Ventura County and its cities.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--Color only in Simi edition) Ventura County ha zardous workers clean up after a mock chlorine spill. The drill was held Tuesday at the sanitation plant in Simi Valley.

(2--Color only in Simi edition) Ventura County fire Capt. Steve Francis communicates with the dispatcher during the hazardous materials emergency drill.

Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News