NORMAL - A high-speed police chase ended with the suspect's car slamming into a university residence hall, collapsing three of the building's four stories and injuring dozens of students. Not really. | Photo Gallery

But that was the scenario played out Saturday morning as the Normal Fire Department began a 24-hour disaster drill using Dunn Hall, one of the three residence halls slated for demolition this summer on Illinois State University's campus.

For most of the last week or so, area fire departments have used portions of the building for controlled burns to enhance their training. Among the last training exercises to be staged at Dunn Hall was the partial building collapse, which was called "a once-in-a-career" training opportunity.

"We can talk about it 100 times, but it doesn't add up to doing it one time," said Jeff Siegmund, a Normal firefighter and emergency medical technician.

Siegmund and fellow firefighter Matt Steinkoenig were one of the ambulance crews responding first to the mock disaster.

Fellow firefighters working through the rubble and gapping holes knocked into Dunn Hall brought Siegmund and Steinkoenig many of the "victims" to assess and care for in an area in front of nearby Hamilton Hall set up as a triage center.

"We've been trained with triage procedures so we can get people treated as quickly as possible," Steinkoenig said. "But when you have people to actually interact with and work through, it's different. It's great practice."

Jacey Sloat of Normal volunteered to be a victim. Sloat was required to portray a young woman with a head injury, but she also had an extra assignment.

"I'm supposed to keep asking them about my two friends," Sloat said. "That keeps prompting them that there are people still unaccounted for, and it keeps them looking."

Sloat, who works in the emergency room at BroMenn Regional Medical Center, Normal, said she and her daughter, Shawnee, volunteered because she knows how such drills can sharpen emergency workers' skills.

Because the disaster drill will take 24 hours, firefighters, special teams and other rescue workers get to work through all the stages of what a real incident would go through, said Dan Hite, a training officer with the Normal Fire Department.

Hite estimated most disaster drills take three to four hours.

"We're breaking it into two shifts, but working it as a continuous operation," Hite said. "We've got command staff coming in at eight-hour shifts, so there is continuity to how we control and manage a scene."

In addition to firefighters making an initial response, specialized teams including the technical rescue teams from Normal and Canton arrived along with the Illinois Search Dogs.

The technical rescue teams planned their way into the building and how to move the rubble to get to trapped "victims." Meanwhile, the search dog teams first brought in dogs trained to find victims who are still alive, followed by dogs trained to find bodies.

"A dog and their handler are accompanied by rescue personnel, and we work room by room," said Greg Horn, a volunteer from Tallula with a search dog team. "Once a live-find dog clears a room, then they bring in a cadaver dog to go over the same room or area."

Horn explained how they do their work roughly an hour after the drill started.

"I'm not actually here yet," he added.

Members of the search dog team had assembled and were waiting to be called in, but Horn was on site to maintain contact and ensure the safety of a volunteer victim who was waiting inside the building to be found.

"We are pretty protective of our victims and take every precaution we can," Horn said. "But our training is inherently dangerous. If we are going to work in it, we need to train in it."

Hite said he has been working about a year and a half to secure the 1950s-era residence hall as a training site. However, Hite said he first learned of the possibility to use the halls about eight years ago during discussions with the university's architect.

Earlier this year, the ISU board of trustees approved spending $1.3 million to demolish Dunn-Barton and Walker halls. The area will be the site of a $44 million, 170,000-square-foot Student Fitness and Kinesiology and Recreation Center.

"ISU really needs to be commended for letting us do this," Hite said. "To have the opportunity to train in a building like this is phenomenal - it's a once-in-a-career training opportunity for many of us."

Hite estimated 75 to 80 firefighters and rescue personnel would receive training at Saturday's building collapse drill. More training, including arson investigation, will continue into this week at Dunn Hall.