By Lookout Staff

October 5, 2023 -- Smoke will engulf parts of the Santa Monica Pier and shots will be heard Thursday morning during a "mass casualty" training exercise staged by the Police and Fire departments.

The exercise takes place from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 200 Santa Monica Pier, Public Safety officials said this week.

"The objective of this exercise is to train our first responders and test their response to high-risk, complex, events involving multiple agencies and potentially multiple victims," officials said.

During the event, the Training Cadre "will utilize simunitions and smoke simulations which look and sound real.

"Simunitions" are non-lethal projectiles that give off a sound, while smoke simulations are similar to those used in movies.

“Combined with the help of volunteer actors from the community, we aim to make this training as realistic as possible to further prepare our personnel in the event of an actual active threat," officials said.

Simulation exercises are held periodically so police and firefighters can "learn the limits of their equipment and tactics in an educational, non-emergency environment," public safety officials have said.

In June 2022, an active threat drill was held at the John Adams Middle School (JAMS). The training was held after a string of high-profile incidents involving active shooters ("Police Hold 'Active Threat' Drill at JAMS," June 24, 2022).