PARIS – A mock disaster drill will take place Monday at the Maine Veterans’ Home at 477 High St.

Residents and families of residents at the 90-bed nursing home have been notified of the drill, and ads were placed in local newspapers to inform residents that the drill will take place from around 3 to 4 p.m.

Volunteers from the Norway and Paris fire departments and staff of PACE Ambulance will respond to a mock fire in a small area inside the home that will be blocked off for the drill.

Assistant Fire Chief Butch Larson said this is the third year the nursing home has requested the drill to be prepared in case of emergency.

“This is good training for both the Fire Department and PACE too,” he said.

A section of the home with about four patient rooms will be blocked off with plastic. Then fake smoke will be pumped, in using a fogger.

“The smoke becomes so thick you can’t see your hand in front of you,” Larson said.

Firefighters will then go in wearing air packs and full gear searching for about 10 nursing home staff members and patients who will pose as “victims,” Larson said.

The firefighters will use heat-seeking cameras to locate the victims, who have been instructed to station themselves on the floor, in bathrooms or closets – anywhere a person might go in a panic to escape a fire.

“It’s a good training exercise for the nursing home,” said Larson. “It keeps them up on what could happen.”

Last year, the drill involved the imaginary collapse of a ceiling in a gathering room.