You just never know when an accident will happen or how bad it will be.

And that's why multiple emergency crews from around northcentral Wisconsin gathered in Rib Mountain.

Consider this hypothetical situation: a moving meth lab on a bus crashes into a school bus full of kids.

Multiple vehicles and multiple patients are involved in the accident.

That's the exact scenario eight emergency crews from the Wausau area dealt with in Rib Mountain on Saturday.

"It's just a good opportunity for all area departments to work together. I think it helps build relationships and just makes everybody stronger in the county and in the area if there ever is an incident like this," Rib Mountain Fire Department Deputy Chief Josh Finke said.

The crisis simulation is an annual event hosted by the Rib Mountain Fire Department and is designed so emergency responders can practice skills they don't use every day.

"You have to have a good command structure, good leadership and you have to have a lot of team members that are capable of performing the tasks and be comfortable with their skills," Rib Mountain Fire Department Lieutenant Shane Will said.

But besides being a refresher course for workers, it was also a teaching tool for the 40 high schoolers who played the role of mock victims in the accident.

"It's important for a couple of reasons: for them to kinda know what we do and to expose them to dangers of meth and driving irresponsibly and stuff like that," Deputy Chief Finke said.

More than 50 workers took part in the training.

The past two crisis simulations the fire department has hosted involved a ski lift collapsing at Granite Peak and a tornado incident.