MOUNT VERNON — Members of the Knox County Local Emergency Planning Committee participated in the 2010 hazardous materials exercise Wednesday morning at the Knox County Emergency Management Agency Emergency Operations Center.

Each year, the LEPC works through a functional or full-scale drill or a tabletop exercise to practice the county hazmat plan.

The tabletop exercise brought together representatives from county agencies and first responders who simulated a hazardous materials incident, to learn how the agencies would work together in a real emergency.

Brian Hess, Knox County Emergency Management Agency director, told those gathered for the exercise this past weekend’s storms in northern Ohio served as a recent reminder of how quickly large-scale emergencies can strike a community and call emergency plans into action.

“We were very close to sitting in an activated [Emergency Operations Center],” Hess said.

In the tabletop scenario, a propane truck collided with a car at the intersection of Ohio 229 and Ohio 308 in Gambier, causing the truck to overturn and catch fire, losing part of its load of 3,000 gallons of liquid propane.