Norwich — There was no smoke, no fire and no emergency. But the two dozen fire trucks and vehicles that surrounded the abandoned mill building downtown were prepared for the worst.

Firefighters and emergency personnel from 13 local departments stood stationed in the narrow streets around the city's abandoned mill building at the intersection of Franklin, Willow and Chestnut streets, testing out the protocol they would follow in case of a fire in the building.

If the 216,000-square-foot complex were to catch fire, the entire neighborhood would be in danger, Fire Chief Kenneth Scandariato said Sunday morning after the drill was over.

"Because of the size, and ... because it's tight, there's a lot of potential here for a lot of damage to a lot of buildings," Scandariato said. 'We've identified a need for a plan to be coordinated and organized in a way that tries to ... protect the structure and, if not, keep it to the building of origin and not the neighborhood," he said.

The drill began about 9 a.m., with trucks, police cruisers and Norwich Emergency Management vehicles surrounding an area of several blocks around the mill complex.

For about an hour, more than 60 firefighters and emergency responders tested their radios, studied maps of the area and planned out how they would evacuate the townhouses and the Artspace apartment complex across Willow Street.

Norwich residents walked by the trucks, some glancing curiously at the hubbub and asking the firefighters standing by what was going on.

In a real emergency at the mill building, more than twice the number of firefighters and emergency personnel would need to respond, Scandariato said.

"Something like this, because of its size, exceeds the scope of a typical response right from the get go," he said.

But the drill allowed the participating departments to establish how they would communicate and where they would be stationed in case of a catastrophe at the mill.

"You can plan for a fire, but you can't plan for the fire," Scandariato said. "We don't know what's going to happen exactly. But if the event turns into something that exceeds our capacity, we now have a plan in place."

Adam Miller, who was leaving his house across the street from the mill Sunday morning with several friends and a car full of skateboards, said he was glad to see officials planning for an emergency in his neighborhood.

"I'm happy to come out here and see them standing around and trying to figure out what they would do," he said. If the mill building were to catch fire, "I think no one has any idea what they would do."

A plaque on the side of the mill building commemorates a fire that destroyed the Hopkins & Allen gun factory, which stood there until it burned down in February 1900.

"By the time the fire department arrived, it was too late to save the building," the plaque reads.

Scandariato said he's trying to prevent that kind of extensive damage.

Planning for the drill took almost two years, and he said the departments learned about how they would work together in case of an emergency.

"A lot of good came from this — a lot of collaboration, a lot of cooperation," he said. "We took the time we need to honor the duty we have to ... prevent a problem.

m.shanahan@theday.com

Twitter: @martha_shan