Firefighters and paramedics work with police to teach them how to handle triage and first-aid situations. The training was to improve cooperation between units. (Photo by Eileen Joyce)

A yellow paintball splotch stained Nevada County Deputy Sheriff Jeff Pettitt's overalls.

It was a make-believe wound from a make-believe training exercise, but his adrenaline was still pumping and his makeshift team stopped the pretend bad guy.

"I guess it's the realization that, when you come down to it, your training really does take over," Pettitt said.

That's just what his supervisor, Sgt. Gary Driscoll, wanted to hear.

"It's a well-orchestrated ballet, if you would. One guy can ruin the whole pie," Driscoll said before Pettitt and the other officers converged on the county fairgrounds' Sugar Pines Lodge.

The exercise was part of a two-day training session with law enforcement and firefighters. The second annual event concludes today.

Two years ago, law enforcement and fire officials formed the county Public Safety Supervisors Committee, which includes the Grass Valley and Nevada City police, the Sheriff's Office, the California Highway Patrol, the State Parks Department, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the Nevada County Consolidated and Grass Valley fire departments.

The goal was to improve cooperation and communication between law enforcement and firefighters.

Before the group formed, Driscoll said, "If we had differences amongst ourselves, we had gigantic differences between the way cops and firefighters saw an event."

On Wednesday, they practiced how they would respond to the grimmest of scenarios - a hostage situation with possible shooting victims. If the Columbine High shootings taught law enforcement anything, Driscoll said, it was to converge on shooters more quickly.

After Pettitt and company made their run, Sheriff's Cpl. Don Clark critiqued their actions, pinpointing what they did right, and wrong, after entering the building, which was filled with screaming kids.

Sgt. Jeff Glover designed the layout. "We wanted to drum up something that would allow them to demonstrate their skills with tactics that we taught them," he said.

Participants also rehearsed how to treat several shooting victims at once. Grass Valley Fire Capt. Tom Browning showed how to prioritize the patients. The word triage, he pointed out, is French for sorting in an orderly fashion.

CHP and Calstar helicopters later dropped in to join the mock rescue.

Consolidated firefighter Chelsea Fox played a victim during one exercise, and she found it helpful to work with law enforcement.

Fox also said the day had its humorous moments, such as "seeing the cops climb the ladder" extending from a fire engine.

"Some of them only made it halfway up and climbed back down slowly," she said.

But that was part of the orientation, Driscoll said. Squad cars and fire engines were there for everyone's perusal. "It's kind of a big-boy show-and-tell," he said.

The event received contributions from the Nevada County Law Enforcement and Fire Protection Council, Caseywood Corp., J.F. Paintball and Fredd's Country Store.

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