Emergency responders from the Sacramento police and fire departments, along with zoo staff will take part in a safety exercise.
Mary Healy, the zoo's executive director, describes the scenario.
"We're pretending that a small airplane crashes into the zoo to give all these partners an opportunity to work with the zoo to practice what would happen in the case of something horrific like this happening." ~ Mary Healy, Sacramento Zoo executive director
Healy says the zoo holds several safety drills throughout the year internally with its own staff. But this will be the first time police, fire and other emergency responders will be taking part.
Healy doesn't think today's drill will upset the animals.
"Probably not, if you think about even a busy day at the zoo with 3,000 visitors, there's a lot of excitement when we have just the regular Saturday. But the animals that we are simulating as injured, we are going to have 10 plastic flamingos with injuries."
The zoo will be open Monday morning but will stop selling tickets at 12:30 p.m. The safety drill is scheduled be from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The zoo will resume winter visitor hours on Tuesday.
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