When it comes to fighting fires, sometimes the best offence is a good defence.
To demonstrate how the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George (RDFFG) prepares for wildfire, and to give local jurisdictions a chance to test out their emergency operations centres, on Dec. 5 staff organized a tabletop exercise where officials walked through the steps of responding to a wildfire, from receiving the first phone call about a fire to activating the RDFFG emergency operations centre.
The tabletop exercise, held in front of an audience in the RDFFG board room, simulated an emergency affecting three jurisdictions: The Regional District, the City of Prince George and Lheidli T’enneh First Nation.
It began with Andrea Rainey, a wildfire prevention officer with the BC Wildfire Service, receiving a tip about lightning-caused fire in the woods north of Prince George.
What followed was a flurry of phone calls: First from Rainey to the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, and then to officials from Prince George, the Regional District and Lheidli T’enneh First Nation. Rainey discussed the situation with representatives from each jurisdiction, outlining critical infrastructure and letting them know they should prepare for a potential evacuation order.
Later in the afternoon, the three local governments each activated their emergency operations centres for a surprise drill on wildfire response.
The tabletop exercise and drill were a good opportunity to practise interjurisdictional emergency management, Rainey told The Rocky Mountain Goat. Emergency response can be hectic and messy when just only one municipality is involved, she said, and it gets even more complicated when several governments have to collaborate on the fly.
“Emergency events don’t have administrative boundaries. So with something like this, where you’ve got a fire crossing three administrative jurisdictional boundaries, each of those local governments might have different policies, procedures, plans,” Rainey said. “In an emergency, public safety is at risk – we need to be as coordinated as possible.”
The exercise gave practical experience to officials who are responsible for emergency management, but it also allowed participants to put names to faces and forge relationships that will make collaboration more natural in the future, Rainey added.
This is the first time the RDFFG has done a cross-agency emergency response exercise like this, she said, and it allowed every agency to give their staff hands-on experience.
“They can see where they’ve got some strengths, as well as see where they’ve got opportunities to streamline training some of their staff,” she said. “If you’ve got somebody that’s never worked in an EOC [emergency operations centre], they can now sit down, put a vest on and do their job and there’s not real-life repercussions to that.”
That streamlining makes it easier for responders on the front lines to focus on fighting fires, Rainey added.
“Local governments and Emergency Management and Climate Readiness are going to be working very closely to do what they need to do to keep the public safe,” she said. “And then that frees up first responders who are dealing with the actual incident to just do our jobs.”
