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Claxton was one of more than 60 victims in an emergency drill, coordinated by the Bethesda Hospitals’ Emergency Preparedness Partnership, to simulate how community hospitals and emergency staffs would operate in the event of a catastrophe.

The partnership, created in 2004, includes Navy Med, The Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health and Suburban Hospital. Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the three hospitals came together to try and mitigate damage in the event of a catastrophic emergency.

‘‘We weren’t prepared for Sept. 11,” said Claxton, of Atlanta. ‘‘The threat from something like this isn’t as unrealistic as the public thinks, and we need to be prepared.”

The fourth such drill since the creation of the partnership, this year’s exercise included the mock explosion of a dirty bomb — a radioactive bomb that is usually combined with conventional explosives, like dynamite.

At 10 a.m. Thursday, a van and truck detonated and smoke began billowing out, covering victims of the explosion. Dozens of victims were lying helpless on the ground, covered in thick gashes pouring fake blood and gouged by shrapnel.

Prior to the drill, volunteers prepared the victims by painting on fake, burgundy blood, ripping their clothes to simulate the effects of the explosion, and covering them with black make-up to indicate singeing.

One victim, covered in blood and smoke, began sprinting, trying desperately to draw attention to the accident.

‘‘Somebody help us,” Ignatius Flemister screamed. ‘‘There are people dying.”

Fire trucks from the Navy Med fire department arrived less than five minutes after the initial detonation, and immediately began hosing down the detonated vehicles.

The water from the hoses mixed with the fake blood and make-up on the asphalt, creating an eerie image of what real attack could look like.

After the initial fire company arrived, ambulances and fire trucks from across the county raced to the scene, setting up decontamination tents for the now radioactive exposed victims.

Victims who were able to, stood up and were hosed off, a necessary precaution before they could be brought to a hospital.

Helicopters from the Washington, D.C., National Guard and the Delaware National Guard hovered overhead, waiting to transport victims to Andrews Air Force Base, and then onto an Air National Guard station, Berry Field, in Nashville, Tenn.

The drill, which lasted five hours, went well, according to one Navy official.

‘‘I’m going to write this off as a success,” said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Gillette, the exercise coordinator. ‘‘Communications between local, state, federal and military groups always need to be improved upon, that’s why drills like this are imperative.”

Gillette said the drill took about four months to plan, and that each year he tries to create something different than the previous year’s exercise.

Last year’s drill included the explosion of a 15-passenger van while at a Bethesda filling station and the chain reaction that followed, including Beltway accidents and a helicopter crash in Rock Creek Park.

Other officials also said the drill is an annual necessity.

‘‘If you don’t drill you become complacent, and complacency leads to sloppy skills,” said Patrick Fleming, chief of the Navy Med fire department. ‘‘If you haven’t practiced a scenario, you lose a step.”

While the drill was in mid-swing however, Fleming had to make a decision.

‘‘I actually had to split some resources during the drill,” Fleming said. ‘‘We had a real incident, a gas leak in Gaithersburg, so I had to send half of the HazMat team up there.”