It is not often a house explosion can be classified as a positive thing, but by all accounts a mock disaster held here last week was a great success.
The emergency exercise on the evening of June 17 was organized by Linda Dickson, the county’s community emergency management coordinator, along with the OPP and the Mapleton Fire Department.
Emergency personnel were given no advance warning about the exercise, which included a mock house explosion across from the Co-op in Drayton, one victim, downed hydro lines, and a compromised gas tank at the Co-op.
“I think it went not too bad,” Dickson said in an interview. She explained that information was not coming in to responders in the same manner it would during an actual emergency, but she said it was a good learning experience for all those involved.
Mapleton Fire Chief Rick Richardson said overall, the 1.5-hour exercise was a success for his department.
Despite having fewer firefighters than he would have liked, and identifying some items on which firefighters need to work, Richardson felt the mock disaster was an invaluable learning tool.
“That’s why we do these things – to try to improve,” Richardson said. “I’ve never seen one done perfect before.”
He noted that while firefighters annually hold theoretical “table-top” meetings about emergency situations, the practical, live mock disaster exercises only occur about once every three years.
Following last week’s exercise, firefighters discussed communication issues and what they need to improve on, he added.
Sandy Smith, field manager with Royal City Ambulance, said the mock disaster is basically “a response exercise” for paramedics, which shows the response time and availability of county ambulances.
“I understand it went very well,” Smith said, adding he was not in attendance and has yet to receive a full report on the exercise.
OPP Constable Mark Cloes took part in the exercise and agreed it went very well. He said it is not often the OPP participates in a training event alongside firefighters and paramedics, so it was a great educational tool.
The first challenge faced by firefighters and other emergency personnel was just getting to the scene, because a gasoline spill from the Co-op compromised their safety and eliminated the most direct route to the disaster area.
Once on the scene, firefighters had to coordinate the mock evacuation of nearby homes, due to the gasoline spill and also a spilled substance at the Co-op that may have posed a threat to the health and safety of the residents.
Richardson said in addition to emergency personnel, the exercise also involved Hydro One and Union Gas (for shutting off utility lines), the county roads department (road closures), Mapleton’s Public Works department (creating dykes to prevent gasoline from getting into the river and the sewers), the Ministry of the Environment and the Grand River Conservation Authority (who are notified in the case of a gasoline spill), the PMD arena (primary evacuation centre), and the Moorefield fire hall (secondary evacuation centre).
The exercise was the first of its kind in Drayton, although there was a similar exercise in Palmerston three years ago. And Dickson said there will likely be another mock disaster in Guelph-Eramosa this fall.
She explained Canada’s Emergency Management Act was changed in 2003, making emergency exercises mandatory every year, though most of those are “table-top exercises,” as identified by Richardson.
Some falsely assume the local exercises were the result of the tornadoes that hit the county in 2005, while others think the 2003 move to make the exercises mandatory was a result of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.
However, Dickson said while 9/11 may have sped things up, the measure was largely the result of the Canadian ice storms of 1998.
But that’s not to say local emergency service personnel did not learn from the two tornadoes that hit Mapleton and Centre Wellington townships three years ago.
One thing that was drastically improved after the tornadoes was the evacuation technique of Mapleton firefighters, Richardson said.
While evacuating homes near Conestogo Lake, there was no way to determine which houses had been checked, and as a result there was some confusion among firefighters and overlap with OPP efforts.
The Mapleton department now uses a placard system, that requires firefighters to place stickers on the front door of residences that have been cleared to notify other firefighters and emergency services.
with files from Wilma Mol
