Hazmat suits on the street

On Saturday, the San Francisco Fire Department led a multi-agency weapons of mass destruction exercise. The idea was to train the department's personnel, as well as that of other local, state, and federal agencies, on how to respond to a terrorist attack with chemical weapons or other biohazards. All told, the exercise involved around 500 emergency workers who were tasked with responding to and dealing with an attack on one of downtown San Francisco's biggest office buildings.

Here, several hazmat suits belonging to firefighters lay on the street. Several blocks of downtown were shut down Saturday for the exercise, which involved a simulated attack with both a chemical weapon--sodium cyanide--and explosives in one building, and a shooting in another.

One of the major purposes of the training exercise was to help the members of the various agencies get to know each other and learn how they are supposed to work together in case of an actual attack.