Exercise Overview

This exercise will serve as an opportunity for the management and staff that make up your Incident Command Team to work through scenario information and injects dealing with activities associated with a commercial fire severely damaging your administration building. The primary purpose of this exercise is to provide an opportunity for institutions of higher education to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their Continuity of Operations Plan.

College Conflagration Exercise Initiative

This exercise will be facilitated via an internet based application entitled ON-Line eXercise (ONX) System which will allow individuals to participate in the exercise from their normal base of operation.

Information on the ONX System can be found at ONXSystem.com.

Homeland Security Exercise & Evaluation Program

This exercise utilizes the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) system for exercise design, facilitation and evaluation.

HSEEP compliant Exercise Evaluation Guides (EEG) are utilized to assess the various planning / preparedness, response and recovery capabilities and capacity of universities and colleges participating in this exercise.

After Action Report / Improvement Plan - Inject Response Report

An HSEEP compliant After Action Report / Improvement Plan (AAR / IP) will be generated at the conclusion of this exercisee. This report is based on an exercise specific Exercise Evaluation Guide and the observations and recommendations of an on-site evaluator. Each university / college will need to provide an internal evaluator for the exercise.

In addition all responses to injects and descriptions of actions taken by exercise participants during the exercise are captured within the ONX System and exported to generate an Inject Response Report at the conclusion of the exercise.

Exercise Scenario

At 10:37PM on Sunday a motorist driving past the campus notices smoke coming from a vent on the top of the administration building. Using his cell phone the motorist calls 9-1-1 to report a fire.

Within several minutes of notification the fire department has arrived. Upon sizing up the scene and establishing an Incident Command firefighters begin to battle the conflagration that is consuming the building.

Because the fire is proving more difficult to extinguish than originally thought, the Incident Commander asked for additional resources. A second alarm is sounded and the supplementary firefighters and equipment arrive. It takes another 43 minutes before the fire is extinguished.

At 7:49AM on Monday the first arriving staff members are shocked to see that their workplace has been severely damaged. They stand in the parking lot waiting for someone to give them directions as to what they should do.

Exercise Participation Information