Holmes County hazmat drill tests emergency response at Centor in Berlin

A hazardous materials drill at Centor in Berlin put Holmes County’s emergency system under outside scrutiny Saturday morning, with county planners and responders working through a full-scale exercise that started at 9:15 a.m. and was posted in advance as “only an exercise.”

The Holmes County Emergency Management Agency and the Holmes County Local Emergency Planning Committee led the training on April 18, 2026. East Holmes Fire & EMS also listed an LEPC Exercise at Centor on its public calendar for 9 a.m. to noon, underscoring the location and the three-hour window for the countywide test.

The point was not just to stage another training day. Hazmat incidents demand fast communication, clear command and a shared understanding of who is responsible for what when a spill, leak or transportation accident threatens roads, farms, schools or industrial sites. In Holmes County, where villages sit alongside farmland and heavily traveled corridors, that kind of coordination can determine whether a problem stays contained or turns into a wider public-safety response.

Ohio Emergency Management Agency training guidance says the state’s exercise program is meant to let first responders, emergency managers and partners test plans, equipment and personnel through realistic emergency scenarios. Ohio’s hazardous materials exercise manual says the state and local emergency planning committees began testing hazmat plans in 1990. Federal guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires local emergency planning committees to develop an emergency response plan, review it at least annually and provide chemical information to the public.

Holmes County’s own emergency-management materials describe that broader job in practical terms: coordinate mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery by working with local and state agencies. The county also says its EMA administers the countywide all-hazards emergency management program under Ohio law, making drills like the one at Centor part of routine readiness, not a side project.

The exercise drew praise because it was evaluated by state EMA officials and directors from surrounding counties, adding an outside measure of how Holmes County performed. A previous Holmes LEPC exercise was described as having gone “perfectly” and included Holmes EMA, the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office, Killbuck Fire Department, Glenmont Fire Department, the American Red Cross and the Holmes County Health District, with evaluators from Wayne, Ashland and Tuscarawas counties. Holmes County EMA has also said the county entered 2026 with a new exercise cycle, and that the order of drills can depend on grant funding for hazmat training.

That matters in a county where the sheriff’s office says it employs about 56 people and has full police jurisdiction in every municipality, village and township, and where East Holmes Fire & EMS covers a large area of eastern Holmes County near Berlin. When the next real emergency comes, the value of a drill like this will be measured in minutes, not minutes on a calendar.