This month, 3 subject matter experts from the community met with our host to discuss Operation Chem Loco, a hazardous materials table-top exercise recently conducted by OEM.  Ralph Siccama with Greene County LEPC, Larry Woods as the Director of Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management, and Christopher Roush EMS & Special Operations with Springfield Fire Department.

With railway hazmat exercises in the news recently, the timing of this tabletop was highly relevant to current events, though the planning to put this together began more than 6 months prior. In this episode, the group discusses exercises, planning, collaboration in the local community, and the exercises’ relationship to community resources. Whether the focus is on training, exercising, planning, or responding to an emergency, collaboration is ultimately what the group recognizes as the center point of our responsibility to our communities.