UTSA, S.A. Fire Department to conduct Nov. 16 emergency exercise

Alternate route is indicated in green on map; closed section is in red

By Tim Brownlee
Assistant Director of Public Affairs

(Nov. 11, 2010)--UTSA and the San Antonio Fire Department will collaborate on an emergency-response training exercise from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, Nov. 16 at the Margaret Batts Tobin Laboratory on the west side of the UTSA Main Campus.

The full-scale, emergency-response exercise will test a potential threat to the high-containment laboratory facility and involve multiple fire trucks and other emergency-response vehicles. The drill fulfills an annual requirement of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for assessing security and emergency-response procedures with these high-containment facilities.

"We want to be sure students, faculty and staff near the site are aware of the activity that will be involved in the training exercise," said Donovan Agans, director of business continuity and emergency management in the UTSA Police Department. "We apologize for any temporary inconvenience as we conduct this important emergency training event."

UTSA high-containment laboratory facilities have ongoing biological research applicable to clinical and diagnostic vaccine development with biological agents that may cause serious or potentially lethal disease after inhalation. Current UTSA research involves bacterial and fungal agents that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which there are anti-fungal and antibiotic treatments.

For the emergency-response exercise, the San Antonio Fire Department will work with UTSA response personnel from the Office of Business Continuity and Emergency Management, Police Department, and Office of Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management.

For more information, contact the UTSA Office of Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management at 210-458-5250.