Matthew Pasieka spent five months preparing to simulate a disaster that could claim lives in a matter of minutes.

Pasieka, the vice president of the Islip Ambulance Chiefs Association, will join about 250 first responders Saturday morning for a mass-casualty incident training exercise at the Sayville Ferry Service. Local police, fire and EMS officials will have to save around 70 "victims" of a simulated explosion onboard a ferry following a boat collision, he said. When first responders climb aboard the stranded, smoking ferry from their rafts, they will tend to seemingly bloodied, prosthetic wounds of screaming, crying actors.

First responders and emergency medicine officials agree that it's not a matter of "if" they will encounter a mass-casualty incident — it’s a matter of "when."

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