A recent mock disaster exercise held at the Mountain View County office and in Cremona/Water Valley has lead to recommended improvements to the emergency response system for the region.
The 15 recommendations were presented in a report to councillors during the June 5 policies and priorities committee meeting.
On April 18 Mountain View County hosted the mock disaster exercise, which included representatives from Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, Cremona fire department, Cremona FCSS, the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, and Alberta Health Services.
The exercise involved a mock wildfire in the forest reserve southwest of Water Valley.
It had three principal objectives: to test the MVC emergency centre protocols and emergency management plan; to practise setup, management and operation of the evacuee reception centre; and to test communications, coordination and collaboration among stakeholders.
During the exercise, an emergency operations centre (EOC) was activated at the MVC office and a reception centre in Cremona.
Montane Forest Management Ltd. prepared a report on the exercise, including the following recommendations for future emergency responses:
• Provide first-aid training for reception centre personnel.
• Consider use of unified command structure during all incidents with overlapping jurisdiction.
• Develop a wildfire pre-plan for the Water Valley area to ensure that all mutual-aid partners are aware of command and tactical communications channels, interface values at risk, and protection strategies and tactics.
• EOC planning section and EOC director should determine and announce a regular briefings schedule for EOC management and general staff.
• Set and communicate the EOC objectives to all EOC personnel as early as possible.
• Display key action items list to ensure all items are followed through to closure.
• Ensure that all old municipal emergency plans are removed from the EOC to avoid confusion.
• Establish a situation unit in the EOC planning section early to ensure regular updates of EOC status boards and display of an accurate ‘common operating picture'.
Kevin Heppler, MVC unified commander for the exercise, said there was good communication between the EOC and ESRD.
Ryan Morrison, EOC director, said the “tempo was good, exercise hit the points needed, and EOC personnel worked really well together.”
Paul Thomas, reception centre manager, said there is a need for more trained people in all reception centre positions.
Bill Johnston, evaluator at the EOC, said personnel “did a great job dealing with the incident (and) compressed timeline made it difficult to achieve all strategies.”
During the June 5 policies and priorities committee meeting, members accepted the mock disaster report for information.
Morrison said the recommendation will now be implemented by county staff.
