Base officials, along with several Altus rescue teams and emergency departments, held a full-spill re-creation exercise on North Park Lane just north of the soccer fields.

The scene Wednesday morning carefully reconstructed a possible chain of events: a tanker truck delivering JP-8 jet fuel to the air base traveling southbound and four airmen in an older station wagon joyriding northbound, but on the wrong side of the road.

The tanker driver tries to swerve out of the way of the stationwagon when the two collide. All four occupants are injured.

Jet fuel (in this case water dyed green) begins to spill from the tanker and into a drainage ditch on the side of the road, emitting dangerous fumes for those involvede in the accident and threatening the city's water supply.

Therefore, base officials along with Jackson County EMS, Altus Emergency Management, Altus Fire Department and the Altus Police Department all responded.

The exercise was set up to see how well on-base and off-base departments would interact and work together. Airmen posing as media were also included in the exercise, to make the scenario more realistic.

Assistant Fire Chief Rick Mealer said he thought the exercise was a success, especially when it comes to emergency services coordination with the Air Force base.

"The communictions went really well and that's one of the main reasons we do this," Mealer said. "We had a unified command. Our fire department handled the accident part and the base's HAZMAT team handled the fuel spill. Both departments worked together real well."

Mealer said it was valuable experience for newly promoted fire department Lt. Leander Thacker, who was the very first responder to the scene.