Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars surrounded Highwood High School this morning, as the town took part in a large-scale emergency exercise.

Carly Benson, Emergency Management Coordinator with the Town, said it involved a tornado and five different fire departments, EMS and the police.

'As we expect in an exercise there is always a few hiccups," said Benson. "It is a learning opportunity. It is a chance for us to practice what we do in training so if it happens for real we are prepared for some of the chaos and some of the curve balls that always seem to happen in an emergency."

There were five fire departments on hand RCMP and EMS, who responded to the scene with lights and sirens.

To help make the scene even more realistic volunteer students were covered in fake bloods with realistic but fake wounds. They had to be rescued from the damage the tornado did to the school building.  

Students Zac Walters, Grade 11; and Maia Lepp, Grade 12 said the blood was kind of sticky.

"I would say it went pretty fluently," said Lepp who was trapped in the wood shop. "For my side it took a little bit long, but I feel like it went pretty smoothly."

Walters said it took a bit of time for him to get rescued as there were other students around him that had worse injuries.

"The blood is sticky, the actual makeup with the shards of glass in my face, you can't really feel it too much," said Walters.

Lepp said the students also had to act a bit to add more drama to the exercise.

"They asked us to act disorientated, and act shocked, look concerned for our friends. We had one kid back there who keeps trying to wonder off and I have to keep standing up and pushing him down because he is so concerned for his lost friend."

The two day exercise will have crews in the Montrose area September 28th, doing rapid damage assessments based on the scenario from the 27th.