TYSONS, Va. — First responders in the Tysons Corner area converged on the Greensboro Metro station Sunday morning for a full-scale emergency response drill聽on the Silver Line platform.
Even with massive safety fixes聽underway, Metro is still carrying out its required quarterly emergency response drills.聽 On Sunday, a full-scale emergency response drill was held in Fairfax County on the border with Vienna.聽 The last drill was held聽in Alexandria in聽.
The training scenario on Sunday involved first responders evacuating聽a disabled, smoke-filled Silver Line train聽in a tunnel.
鈥淲e know we鈥檝e have a lot of smoke, fire type incidents, so these are the type of drills we want to enhance and improve on,鈥� said Metro Transit Police Chief Ron Pavlik.
He said聽they try to make the drills as realistic as possible. But one of the main reasons for doing them is to get everyone on the same page, especially when it comes to communication, which is critical during an emergency.
First responders had previous communication problems during the deadly L鈥橢nfant Plaza smoke incident on Jan. 12, 2015.
Sunday鈥檚 drill is the fifth full-scale drill since the deadly Metro smoke incident. 聽Pavlik says the next drill will be in August.聽 He says it will be across the Yellow Line bridge —聽between L鈥橢nfant Plaza and Pentagon Metro station.
