BRYN MAWR, Pa. (CBS) - A nursing facility in Montgomery County, Pa. had to be evacuated this morning because of water damage to the facility’s roof, and the undertaking put emergency response systems to the test.

When authorities decided to evacuate the 123 residents of the Brighten Nursing Home, Haverford Township fire marshal James Marino said he made a call that might surprise some.

“We called in the Southeastern Counterterrorism Task Force — it’s funded by the Homeland Security — which has mobile field hospitals,” he said, manned by about 70 volunteer doctors and nurses.

“They came in at approximately 4:30, 5 o’clock this morning and set the field hospital up in one hour,” he told KYW Newsradio this morning.

And they evaluated who needed to go where, by ambulance or school bus, all volunteer.

By early afternoon, nearly everyone had been placed.

“It feels wonderful that the system’s working,” says Marino, “especially on the beginning of EMS Week — Emergency Medical Services Week. That’s a heck of a way to start it out.”

Reported by Molly Daly, KYW Newsradio 1060